Oct 122017
An apparently pre-Mercury “space capsule” design from Rocketdyne. I am somewhat dubious, though… I suspect it might be less “space capsule” than “high altitude capsule.” Nothing about it screams “re-entry vehicle;” rather it look like something that might have been hauled to the edge of space by a large balloon. The pressure suits worn by the occupants look like something to be worn by a U-2 pilot; there sure is a whole lot of wasted volume in there and it would be odd for a capsule meant to operate in zero-g to have a ladder in it.
Several dozen questions come to mind on this one 🙂
Rocketdyne never did any spacecraft work that I’m aware of how’s it credited? As you note the design is whoely wrong for a space ‘capsule’, but it would maks some sense for a high altitude balloon capsule. No provisions for proper accelleration seating, (sitting up like that is about as bad as standing up during take off) for the occupants. Heck specifically worrisome is it looks like it’s about to land as there is that tree branch in the left hadn corner. So on that ‘spike’ and then falling over and nobody looks to be strapped in…
What is that spike? It looks like the thing in the middle might be a telescope, maybe? It looks like the cabin end is a display of some kind. Is this some kind of spy balloon?
The central “table” display seems to connect all the way down to a ridiculously small “radar dish” in the spike. One might hazard that this is the artists way of imagining a radar mapping or tracking system but… shrug.