Big Gemini (or "Big G") was proposed to

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas Corporation was a major American Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own ...

in August 1969 as an advanced version of the

Gemini Gemini most often refers to: * Gemini (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac * Gemini (astrology), an astrological sign Gemini may also refer to: Science and technology Space * Gemini in Chinese astronomy, the Gemini constellat ...

spacecraft system (albeit actually having little in common). It was intended to provide large-capacity, all-purpose access to

space Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless ...

, including missions that ultimately used

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

or the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

Design

The study was performed to generate a preliminary definition of a logistic

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed spaceflight, to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including Telecommunications, communications, Earth observation satellite, Earth observation, Weather s ...

derived from Gemini that would be used to resupply an orbiting

space station A space station (or orbital station) is a spacecraft which remains orbital spaceflight, in orbit and human spaceflight, hosts humans for extended periods of time. It therefore is an artificial satellite featuring space habitat (facility), habitat ...

. Land-landing at a preselected site and refurbishment and reuse were design requirements. Two baseline spacecraft were defined: a nine-man minimum modification version of the

Gemini B The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) was part of the United States Air Force (USAF) human spaceflight program in the 1960s. The project was developed from early USAF concepts of crewed space stations as reconnaissance satellites, and was a succ ...

called ''Min-Mod Big G'' and a 12-man advanced concept, having the same exterior

geometry Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

but with new, state-of-the-art subsystems, called ''Advanced Big G''. Three launch vehicles-

Saturn IB The Saturn IB (also known as the uprated Saturn I) was an American launch vehicle commissioned by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the Apollo program. It uprated the Saturn I by replacing the S-IV second stage (, 43,3 ...

Titan IIIM The Titan IIIM was a planned American expendable launch system, intended to launch the Manned Orbiting Laboratory and other payloads. Development was cancelled in 1969. The stretched core stage was used on some versions of the Titan IIIB and the ...

, and Saturn INT-20 (

S-IC The S-IC (pronounced S-one-C) was the first stage of the American Saturn V rocket. The S-IC stage was manufactured by the Boeing Company. Like the first stages of most rockets, more than 90% of the mass at launch was propellant, in this case RP ...

S-IVB The S-IVB (pronounced "S-four-B") was the third stage on the Saturn V and second stage on the Saturn IB launch vehicles. Built by the Douglas Aircraft Company, it had one J-2 rocket engine. For lunar missions it was fired twice: first for Earth ...

) were investigated for use with the spacecraft. The Saturn IB was discarded late in the study. The spacecraft consisted of a crew module designed by extending the Gemini B exterior cone to a 419-cm-diameter

heat shield In engineering, a heat shield is a component designed to protect an object or a human operator from being burnt or overheated by dissipating, reflecting, and/or absorbing heat. The term is most often used in reference to exhaust heat management a ...

and a cargo

propulsion Propulsion is the generation of force by any combination of pushing or pulling to modify the translational motion of an object, which is typically a rigid body (or an articulated rigid body) but may also concern a fluid. The term is derived from ...

module. Recovery of the crew module would be effected by means of a gliding parachute (

parawing The Rogallo wing is a flexible type of wing. In 1948, Francis Rogallo, a NASA engineer, and his wife Gertrude Rogallo, invented a self-inflating flexible wing they called the Parawing, also known after them as the "Rogallo Wing" and flexible wi ...

). The parametric analysis and point design of the parawing were accomplished by Northrop-Ventura Company under a subcontract, and the contents of their final report were incorporated into the document. The landing attenuation of the spacecraft would be accomplished by a skid landing gear extended from the bottom of the crew module, allowing the crew to land in an upright position. The propulsion functions of

transfer Transfer may refer to: Arts and media * ''Transfer'' (2010 film), a German science-fiction movie directed by Damir Lukacevic and starring Zana Marjanović * ''Transfer'' (1966 film), a short film * ''Transfer'' (journal), in management studies * ...

rendezvous Rendezvous or rendez-vous may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Rendezvous'' (1923 film), a silent film adventure melodrama * ''Rendezvous'' (1930 film), a German musical directed by Carl Boese * ''Rendezvous ...

attitude control Spacecraft attitude control is the process of controlling the orientation of a spacecraft (vehicle or satellite) with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity such as the celestial sphere, certain fields, and nearby objects, ...

, and retrograde would be performed by a single

liquid propellant The highest specific impulse chemical rockets use liquid propellants (liquid-propellant rockets). They can consist of a single chemical (a monopropellant) or a mix of two chemicals, called bipropellants. Bipropellants can further be divided into ...

system, and launch escape would be provided by a large Apollo-type

launch escape system A launch escape system (LES) or launch abort system (LAS) is a crew-safety system connected to a space capsule. It is used in the event of a critical emergency to quickly separate the capsule from its launch vehicle in case of an emergency requiri ...

. In addition to the design analysis, operational support analysis and a program development plan were prepared. The concept was given serious consideration. In 1971, faced with budget cuts which rendered the development of a fully-reusable space shuttle infeasible, NASA administrator

George Low George Michael Low (born Georg Michael Löw; June 10, 1926 – July 17, 1984) was an administrator at NASA and the 14th president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Low was one of the senior NASA officials who made decisions as manager ...

lamented that shuttle development might have to be delayed until the 1980s, with "something like a "big G" approach and a cheap space station" filling in as an interim. The

Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). The office's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, while it also examines agency pro ...

was much more favorable to the idea than NASA, concluding in a staff paper that Big Gemini launched aboard an uprated Titan III would be a more cost-effective option than any shuttle design. Ultimately OMB Deputy Director

Caspar Weinberger Caspar Willard Weinberger (August 18, 1917 – March 28, 2006) was an American politician and businessman. As a Republican, he served in a variety of state and federal positions for three decades, most notably as Secretary of Defense under ...

helped to broker a compromise where Big G was taken off the table and NASA was given the greenlight for immediate development of a partially-reusable thrust-assisted orbiter shuttle.

Specifications

* Crew size: 9 to 12 * Length: * Maximum diameter: * Habitable volume: * Mass: * Payload: * Launch vehicles: Titan 3M, Saturn IB, Saturn S-IC/S-IVB.

References

External links

Big Gemini – Encyclopedia Astronautica

{{Gemini program Crewed spacecraft Cancelled space missions Project Gemini

Design

Specifications

See also

References

External links