CC0 · no rights reserved
Earth Path Indicator, Mercury 4
From the collection of National Air and Space Museum. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
The Mercury space capsule carried this device, designed by the Honeywell Corporation, which allowed the astronaut to see his orbital track and heading. For example, it indicated when the spacecraft was passing over a ground station or a landing site. The device was a simple globe, driven by a clockwork mechanism. Once in a stable orbit, the astronaut would wind up the clockwork, and set the position of a tiny scale model of the Mercury capsule, under which the globe would rotate.
National Air and Space Museum’s own descriptionSubjects
Credit lineEarth Path Indicator, Mercury 4. 1961. Honeywell Co.. National Air and Space Museum, Transferred from National Aeronautics and Space Administration. CC0.
