Astronaut Scott Carpenter Speaks to President Johnson from a Helium-Atmosphere Decompression Chamber
- 8 years ago
Mercury-Redstone 7 Astronaut Scott Carpenter completed a three orbit mission of the earth on May 24, 1962 aboard spacecraft Aurora 7. Carpenter never went back to space and took a leave of absence from NASA to join the crew of the Navy SEALAB project in 1963.
Carpenter spent a total of 28 days at 62m/203ft/34fath below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, close to the La Jolla, CA coast, in the SEALAB II experimental underwater habitat. This was a world record and quite a feat considering the dangers of saturation diving.
Congratulations were clearly in order and the consummate politician President Lyndon Johnson did not skip a beat. Carpenter, aided by Capt. George F. Bond, USN, M.D., was to call the President to receive his congratulations.
One problem:
Carpenter made the call from an environment with a helium atmosphere; Bond and Carpenter state that the aquanaut was in a decompression chamber . The SEALAB II vessel utilized a helium atmosphere as helium does not have an inert gas narcosis effect, which occurs when gas entering the bloodstream has the same pressure as the ambient pressure of the water. Gases with high rates of lipid diffusion rapidly block nervous cell membranes, leading to narcosis, or an intoxication. Helium is not soluble in lipids and is a safe atmosphere to breathe. The atmosphere in the SEALAB II environment was not entirely He2, but rather a mix of He2 and O2.
The operators have a hard time with Carpenter's helium speech: increased frequency because the speed of sound changes in a helium atmosphere. Helium is a diatomic noble gas and has a low molecular weight compared to the array of heavy gases that compose our atmosphere. Generally, the rate of compression wave propagation increases with low molecular weights. This is grossly simplified.
This tape was supposedly lost, but now it is available for all to hear. I put in the photos as I saw fit. All are available from the public domain and I claim fair use. I am a huge fan of the early space programs; Mercury, Gemini and Apollo (including the Soviet programs), so I found it fun to sort through images of Carpenter.
Carpenter spent a total of 28 days at 62m/203ft/34fath below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, close to the La Jolla, CA coast, in the SEALAB II experimental underwater habitat. This was a world record and quite a feat considering the dangers of saturation diving.
Congratulations were clearly in order and the consummate politician President Lyndon Johnson did not skip a beat. Carpenter, aided by Capt. George F. Bond, USN, M.D., was to call the President to receive his congratulations.
One problem:
Carpenter made the call from an environment with a helium atmosphere; Bond and Carpenter state that the aquanaut was in a decompression chamber . The SEALAB II vessel utilized a helium atmosphere as helium does not have an inert gas narcosis effect, which occurs when gas entering the bloodstream has the same pressure as the ambient pressure of the water. Gases with high rates of lipid diffusion rapidly block nervous cell membranes, leading to narcosis, or an intoxication. Helium is not soluble in lipids and is a safe atmosphere to breathe. The atmosphere in the SEALAB II environment was not entirely He2, but rather a mix of He2 and O2.
The operators have a hard time with Carpenter's helium speech: increased frequency because the speed of sound changes in a helium atmosphere. Helium is a diatomic noble gas and has a low molecular weight compared to the array of heavy gases that compose our atmosphere. Generally, the rate of compression wave propagation increases with low molecular weights. This is grossly simplified.
This tape was supposedly lost, but now it is available for all to hear. I put in the photos as I saw fit. All are available from the public domain and I claim fair use. I am a huge fan of the early space programs; Mercury, Gemini and Apollo (including the Soviet programs), so I found it fun to sort through images of Carpenter.