The fate of the world we live today is destined by social distancing. The terms ” Quarantine” or “Social Distancing” seems recent. Interestingly this mode of social life subsisted way back in the year 1965 when Frank Borman and Jim Lovel crewed for NASA’s Gemini 7 mission, which quarantined the squad nearly 14 days in space, making a total of 206 orbits.
The mission was intended to investigate effects on human body for an extended space flight.Along with physical afflictions owing to weightlessness, prolonged confinement, resource management, handling and storage of waste. Gemini 7 supervised twenty experiments, including evaluation of a lightweight spacesuit, the G5C which eventually proved unsuitable to be worn in hot, cramped environment for a long time.
Sharing close quarters on Gemini 7 was indeed tedious labour for the two membered crew. The astronauts were accommodated in single forward-facing seats underneath two individual hatches. Moreover, the astronauts could not move around until the hatches were opened except for spacewalk. The windows were only 6 by 8 inches which were just a few inches from the astronaut’s faces when the hatch was closed.
Onboard, storage space was also confined which made them to stock trash either in their footwells or behind their seats. On the whole, the interior of the Gemini capsule was not more than the front seat of a small car. Finally, when the squad was freed from space quarantine on December 18, 1965, Borman commented, ” Gemini was a tough go”. Presently, when social distancing recommendations evolve as a baffling scenario, there is a lot to reflect from the two membered crew of Gemini 7.
-Serin Mary Binoy
Source- astronomy.com
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