- Understood; I was speaking in general terms there. An unmanned craft like the X-37 can get away with waiting around (though I don’t know if that was an actual factor in its stubby wings).
- I have to imagine that they weren’t very far into the design process before they realized that “hours” were unrealistic. But by then the overall design would have been set.
- Well, Alaska isn’t entirely made from slush :). I was half-joking of course, but surely the idea, or something close to it, came up in some early meetings?
FWIW I got that the first time around – that the real fork in the road was between the “Race” and incremental development. But that was kind of taken away from the rocketeers early on. Sputnik got a lot of people agitated and though those in the actual aerospace field may have known we’d eventually make a match of it; it motivated TPTB to take a look at M.I.S.S. and say “all right, let’s take this, bring it into the civilian side of the ledger, call it Mercury and be first with a man in space”… but then the other fellows did it again and got Man into Space Sooner and now we were compelled to do some absofreakinglutely awesome knock-your-ass-on-the-ground display of techno-industrial superiority, so Moon Race it was.
As for Dyna Soar ISTM had it ever flown the technological realities at the time would have likely made it too costly to be more than an expensive test program.
IIRC there was a Gemini Moonshot proposal using the Titan launcher with strap on rocket boosters.
There were several proposals to use the Gemini/Titan system to perform the Lunar landing if Apollo/Saturn were not available in time or otherwise suffered a failure, including a barebones ‘rescue’ mission configuration (ultimately not pursued because of the cost and lack of feasbility). There were also a number of proposals from McDonnell Douglas to expand and use the Gemini system for various transportation and space infrastructure tasks, including plans to launch a much larger Gemini capsule (‘Big Gemini’ could carry a crew of 8 to 12 people) on a Saturn INT-20 and INT-21 (two stage variants of the Saturn V).
In many ways, Gemini was a superior system in the send of capability per development effort and production cost; the entire Gemini program–which was begun after the initiation of Apollo and almost strictly to validate the technologies required for the Lunar program–cost about $7.5B in 2012 dollars, or less than 10% of the Apollo program, and at an amoritized per mission cost of ~$700M compared to Apollo which cost almost $10B per flight (almost double that if you want to amoritize the costs over just the Lunar landing missions instead of test flights, Skylab, and ASTP). Of course, Gemini was a comparitively crude system relative to the Apollo CSM and didn’t have the ability to dock and transfer crew to another spacecraft without requiring a spacewalk (though the ‘Blue Gemini’ had a tunnel and hatch through the heat shield to facilitate this). Gemini was the workhorse that made the Apollo program possible and was somewhat ignominiously dumped instead of being used as the Earth orbital workhorse it had proven itself to be.
Stranger
Were I fortunate enough to have been on a Gemini mission, I would have felt a lot better with a hatch between ships, considering that during space walks the guy in the capsule had a pair of shears.
I have often wondered. Would it have been practical to have continued with the Gemini even in the Apollo era with Gemini used for Earth Orbit missions only?
I don’t see why not. The Titan II GLV (Gemini Launch Vehicle) was a purpose-built version of the Titan II SLV, which itself was a modification of the LGM-25C Titan II ICBM, but all versions shared many components such as the guidance system, engines, and propellant feed systems, and many structures and tooling were common, so it wouldn’t require maintaining a totally unique production program. The Gemini capsule was a robust and relatively simple desing (comapred to the Apollo CSM), and many modifications, including a forward located tunnel/hatch was proposed to perform docking maneuvers as well as the aft through-heat shield hatch designed and tested for the Air Force Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL). Proposals for using Gemini/Big Gemini with the Saturn family were advanced to concept design phase, so even if the mass requirements exceeded Titan IIIM/34D capability it wouldn’t be a showstopper. Gemini and a NASA version of MOL could have accomplished essentially all of the mission requirements of the later Apollo Skylab program.
Stranger
I haven’t seen the drawings. With the Blue Gemini “through the heat shield hatch”, where were the retro rockets?
On Gemini? The solid propellant deorbit motors were mounted int he forwad section in front of the cabin.
Stranger
I don’t understand. This link says, “Four solid propellant retrorockets were attached to the heat shield as they were with Mercury.”
I thought I knew everything about Gemini.
Then, I was nine at the time. 
I stand corrected. I just pulled out my Gemini Familiarization Manual and the solid propellant rockets are indeed mounted in front of the service module, just aft of the heat shield. Only the liquid hypergol Reentry Control System (RCS) for the capsule is mounted in the forward section.
Stranger
If there was a hatch in the heat shield of Blue Gemini, how was it used with the service module in place?
Once the service module was gone, I understand the capsule lost life support and had to re-enter very quickly.
It would be attached to the MOL (in the case of Blue Gemini) or some other module which woudl presumable provide life support, power, and attitude control. In the case of Big Gemini, a different propulsion system entirely would have to be used.
Stranger
I presume the MOL would provide SM type support.
Now that I think of it, there’s no way a Gemini could dock with the MOL unless the crew was going to go EVA to board it. So I guess the plan was launch the Gemini already attached to the MOL. Once it’s in orbit, the crew opens the hatch, heads into the MOL and does what they do there. After their MOL mission is over, they reboard the Gemini, seal up the hatch, position the G/MOL so retro rockets on the MOL slow the G/MOL down. Then the Gemini separates, the MOL shoots some rockets to clear the G, the G reenters and the MOL burns up entering the atmosphere.
The Gemini/Titan system was pretty reliable. Kranz’s and Slayton’s autobiographies both mention all the juggling they had to do when G6’s agena blew up and they ended up doing the G6/G7 rendezvous mission instead.
A Gemini system continuation might have stopped the mass exodus of astronauts that occured in the mid 70’s. Gemini missions continue until the STS is available.