By Gemini to the Moon! - Orbiter Space Flight Simulator 2010

[@austinismadcrunk]

Always love watching your videos. I never knew of a proposed Gemini Lunar mission before.

[@1987VCRProductions]

I believe that the Lunar Gemini add on was designed for use with estar's Project Gemini 4.5 (which I prefer). I can't activate the Centaur for whatever reason. Orbiter crashes to the desktop every time I try to establish a link with the Centaur after docking.

[@dballantyne3016]

Nice idea, Gemini was a sports car spacecraft. Was it ever capable of doing an Apollo 22,000 mph rentry?

[@rseferino1]

Daniel Ballantyne The lunar Gemini spacecraft would have weighed 6,988 lb, an extra 595 lb over the basic rendezvous Gemini. The difference consisted of a backup inertial navigator and additional heat shielding for re-entry at 24,000 mph instead of 18,000 mph.

[@DPRKExplained]

Daniel Ballantyne In addition to what Rseferino Orbiter Filmmaker said - the capsule was the same so - yes, with the appropriate heat shielding - the capsule itself could have done an Apollo style reentry at speeds returning from Lunar orbit

[@foxmccloud7055]

The crew for this flight would have been: CDR- Charles "Pete" Conrad PLT- Richard "Dick" Gordon

[@altfactor]

I had thought that in the Gemini-Centaur proposal, the Centaur would have remained attached to Gemini until just before re-entry so that it's engine could have been briefly re-ignited for a few seconds at a time for midcourse correction maneuvers. And I suspect Gemini's retrorockets (fired after the service module separation) would have been able to slow down the spacecraft enough so it wouldn't hit the top of the atmosphere at 25,000 miles per hour.

[@marcturner7860]

I just did a quick calculation on this. The retrograde rockets each had a thrust of about 11,000 Newtons and burned for around 5 sec each. With the weight of the capsule around 3,500 kg the retrograde burn only slowed the capsule by about 140 mph. So not much difference really, just enough to drop the standard low-Earth orbit into the atmosphere where the real deceleration happens.

[@SnortinMoundsOfCoco]

When in doubt, eyeballs-out!

[@alainrheault6579]

Mission Gemini 13 december 1966 ? That's a real ambicious mission !!

[@Stuyoung38]

Yes, this mission was proposed by McDonnell. Pete Conrad was gung-ho to do this flight. The higher-ups at NASA were against it, though; they felt it would take time and resources away from Apollo. Conrad got the "consolation prize" of a new world record high-earth-orbit mission. And Gemini used standard ejector seats. The hyperbolic fuels used by Titan III would have caused "less-energetic" of an explosion than kerolox or LH2/O2 fuels. John Young expected that his hair would have been "set on fire" by the first stage engines exhaust plumes had he been forced to eject before staging, however.

[@altfactor]

+Stuart Young How might the space race been different if NASA had flown this mission in late 1966??

[@lucaschmidt8913]

I think it was wise not to fly it in 1966. Apollo 8 - 11 in quick succession sure created a better hype/impression than going circumlunar and waitung another 3 years to land.

[@Stuyoung38]

+altfactor: It might have demoralized the Soviet's lunar ambitions at an earlier stage. Apollo 8 was originally supposed to be an Earth-orbital test-flight of the CSM and LM. When NASA got wind of Soviet plans to launch a manned circumlunar flight in December of '68, it worried that the American public would drop its support for Apollo, because the USSR would have been perceived to have "beaten" us to the Moon (or the Moon's vicinity, at any rate). Hence the change of Apollo 8 to a lunar orbital mission (plus, the LM wasn't ready for a test flight, of course).

[@Easy-Eight]

I love these videos. NASA could have used Gemini/Agena to fly to the Moon in '67.

[@manuelmejia7568]

Gemini would have needed a thicker heat shield for the Lunar return since it would re-enter at 25K MPH. Orbital re-entry is done from 18K mph. Otherwise, it was doable.

[@keithharris1672]

It would've been feasible a fly by but if I'm the crew I sure would've been nervous about letting the agena and it's rockets go. I heard NASA wasn't sure gemini could stand the stresses of a reentry like that they would've had to redesign the heat shield. Conrad was raring to go.

[@sputnik256]

Jest tylko jeden problem - Gemini, poza silnikiem do deorbitacji, którego użycie wymaga odłączenia modułu serwisowego, nie posiada silnika, którym mógłby wykonać korektę trajektorii. Wszak gdy Apollo 13 leciał po podobnej trajektorii swobodnego powrotu, wymagane były, jeśli dobrze pamiętam, aż trzy korekty.

[@rseferino1]

The Gemini capsule I put it in a "free-return trajectory", the flyby was over 5000 km of the moon, so its trajectory was undisturbed and did not require course corrections powerful.

[@fluturas03sinzianamanole57]

SPUTNIK

[@sputnik256]

No tak, zwracam honor. Szkoda, że nie zrealizowali takiego lotu.

[@bubbazanetti3463]

Love this one

[@kenspoonid2495]

Nice video

[@migkillerphantom]

I imagine burning while facing backwards is not a very fun experience.

[@altfactor]

Wasn't a docking adapter for docking a Gemini to a Centaur actually built and that this was actually considered for Gemini 11 or Gemini 12 if it appeared that the Russians were going to launch a manned lunar mission (circumlunar, lunar orbital, or lunar landing) in early 1967, which would allowed a manned lunar fly-by of a Gemini before the end of 1966??

[@maggiweber]

Thx for uploading. I really enjoy you vids

[@vison360]

Epic video!

[@corbingrinstead5365]

Could the Gemini capsule actually survive that reentry? Seems out of its design spec. Would they have developed a better heat shield for just this mission?

[@homebuiltindoorplane]

Really awesome man!!!

[@blaudrache8434]

Would a lunar Gemini really need the retro rocket Mo dual?

[@lawrencium3477]

I can't figure out the controls

[@simandi1511]

Why does your moon have a 3D landscape?

[@lastfirst5863]

Missing LES atop the capsule?

[@DPRKExplained]

Yitzi Schweitzer The Gemein never had a LES like Mercury or Apollo - I think it relied on ejector seats

[@lastfirst5863]

Benjamin Weston I'm pretty sure it had one like the Mercury one. With rockets being as dangerous as they were back then there's no way they would have launched manned capsules without an LES.

[@DPRKExplained]

I did some research and no - they only had ejector seats - google all the launches - the Gemeni capsule didn't launch with a LES

[@lastfirst5863]

Huh.

[@DPRKExplained]

Yitzi Schweitzer :)