Operations
Besides providing rotation control to let a pilot steer the spacecraft, the OAMS provided translation control for the Gemini spacecraft, moving it linearly up, down, sideways, forward or aft relative to a nearby object in space. It provided the spacecraft with the capability of changing its orbit, and of performing rendezvous and docking with another spacecraft. The system was also used at the start of the mission to push the spacecraft away from the spent second stage of the launch vehicle, and on occasion, to augment the retrorockets to bring the craft out of orbit.
The complete OAMS had 16 small rocket engines which burned hypergolic propellants fed under pressure from one monomethylhydrazine fuel, and one nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer tank. All engines were mounted in fixed positions and were run at fixed levels of thrust.
- The eight rotational control engines were mounted off the spacecraft's center of mass around the aft section of the spacecraft's equipment adapter, pointed at 90 degree positions up, down, left and right. These were rated at 25 pounds-force (110 N) thrust and fired in pairs, causing it to pitch, roll, or yaw to control attitude.
- Six of the translational control engines were mounted on the side of the retrorocket module, near the spacecraft's center of mass. These were rated at 100 pounds-force (440 N) thrust. One was pointed in each direction up, down, left or right, while two were pointed forrward to provide aft thrust.
- The two forward translation control engines were mounted on the inside of the aft end of the equipment adapter at the twelve o'clock and six o'clock positions. These were rated at 85 pounds-force (380 N) (reduced from 100 pounds-force (440 N) in July 1962).
Read more about this topic: Orbit Attitude And Maneuvering System
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—Jean Scott Rogers. Robert Day. Mr. Blount (Frank Pettingell)
“A sociosphere of contact, control, persuasion and dissuasion, of exhibitions of inhibitions in massive or homeopathic doses...: this is obscenity. All structures turned inside out and exhibited, all operations rendered visible. In America this goes all the way from the bewildering network of aerial telephone and electric wires ... to the concrete multiplication of all the bodily functions in the home, the litany of ingredients on the tiniest can of food, the exhibition of income or IQ.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“There is a patent office at the seat of government of the universe, whose managers are as much interested in the dispersion of seeds as anybody at Washington can be, and their operations are infinitely more extensive and regular.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)