Project Man High


Dr. David Simons, M.D. - The Father of Radiobiology

The folks in Crosby, Minnesota still talk about that tall, lanky, Air Force flight surgeon and being loaded into the small pressurized gondola in 1957.

The morning was clear and quite crisp, a not unusual event in Minnesota, even in August. Doctor David Simons was dressed in a partial pressure suit over which he wore a blue flight suit and multiple layers of underclothing for it would be minus 70 where he was going.

The visor of his white helmet was open as he flashed a smile at the few locals brave enough to be up in the wee hours for this impressive show. The huge polyethylene balloon, now only partially filled, already was straining at the tethers as if eager to begin its trip to the stratosphere, the uppermost limits of Earth's tenuous atmosphere.
At altitude, the balloon would be 200 feet across, with a volume in excess of 3 million cubic feet.

The 50th anniversary of Project Manhigh II was held in Crosby, MN in 2007. Read the story here.

Simon's flight was to study that new challenge to manned space flight known as galactic cosmic rays, tiny bullets of matter striking the planet from all directions of space with a nasty habit of occasionally striking some of the components of our cells, causing damage.

Finally, the gondola capsule door was sealed and the tethers released. Some folks could just make out Simon's gloved hand in the tiny porthole, waving goodbye to his admirers. Stapp was in the monitor shack checking the readouts and hoping his friend and fellow researcher would return safely.

The would-be giant of a balloon slowly began its ascent, growing in size as it reached for the heavens. Abruptly it burst into a blaze of light as it caught the first rays of the morning sun. Passing through 45,000 feet, Simons looked up the see the beginning darkness of outer space familiar only to a few fighter pilots then, those lucky enough to be assigned aircraft that could reach that level. He could just begin to feel the cold, already subzero outside the capsule. The balloon by now was almost completely expanded.

Emulsion plates with the ability to record cosmic ray hits had been strapped to his arms for without such recorders, even a so-called heavy primary, such as the nucleus of an atom of iron traveling at nearly the speed of light might pass right through his body unnoticed.

Most people have difficulty grasping the fact that to a cosmic ray our bodies are mostly empty space. A good analogy would be to compare the nucleus and electrons of individual atoms in our body to the sun and planets of our solar system. Just as a comet can pass through our solar system unnoticed so can cosmic radiation pass through the tissues of our body without even coming close to vital structures but, on the other side of the coin, just as Earth and its moon and other planets bear the scars of previous hits by comets and asteroids so do our tissues sustain occasional hits.

The emulsion plates on Simons' arms were to record the tracks of hits by cosmic particles and tell something of the nature of the particle, for they can be anything from electrons to the nuclei of many different elements. The black mice of earlier flights were like emulsion plates. They were studied after each flight, looking for any evidence of damage or altered function.

Those who knew David Simons personally described him as a quiet, even shy, fellow with thinning blond hair that tended to drift down over his forehead. His light blue eyes caught your attention because they always seemed to be looking at something just over the horizon. Just when you thought you had his full attention his brain would be off in the wild blue yonder thinking of things completely off the walls.

Simons, Kittinger and Stapp were a natural team for Project Manhigh. Kittinger was the kind of guy who not only was the first to ride that casket sized gondola capsule to 20 miles but on one of his flights he opened the door to the capsule and stepped out. Try to imagine yourself falling freely for 20 miles, all the while watching the ground slowly getting closer and closer and wondering if your chute system was going to work.

You might know that Doctor John Paul Stapp of rocket sled fame was one of the supervising physicians during much of this time. Stapp was that Air Force flight surgeon, who rode a rocket sled repeatedly at 60 miles per hour at Holloman so he could intentionally crash into the barrier at the end of the track and study deceleration. They called him old red eye after some of his runs because of hemorrhage of blood into his eyes due the sudden stops. Where no man had gone before - that was the motto of these men. These men were Simons' research associates. You had to be a certain type of personality, bordering on pathologic, to fit with this group and Simons fit in well.

On passing 75,000 feet the sky above now was black with just a hint of stars. Later, a smile briefly animated Simons thoroughly chilled face as he surpassed Kittinger's brief, 96,000 foot record and ascended still higher. Finally the balloon reached its limit on this mission, 101,000 feet. Now began more or less level flight for more than a day and the incredible opportunity to view Earth with its sunrises and sunsets from a perspective never before achieved by man - what magnificent solitude!

David Simons humbly bowed his head in silent prayer for he had left friendly Earth behind and been allowed to reach out and touch the black hostility of space. His familiar daytime sky had been replaced by the alien view of night sky above while the sun's ray's brilliantly illuminated his capsule. Stars filled the threatening black sky above but below lay Earth in all its daytime glory, her dappled whites and browns reminding him of the comfort and warmth he had left behind. The huge balloon was resting on the tenuous upper limits of our life-giving atmosphere. No longer was there enough oxygen to sustain life. Without protection, his time of useful consciousness for a human would be roughly 15 seconds, his blood would boil and he could freeze to death in minutes. Simons was thoroughly familiar with all this and had done his homework well. Now he was focusing on another little known effect of our atmosphere, the protection it affords from cosmic radiation.

Although he could not feel it, cosmic radiation now was penetrating the capsule and all its contents. Traveling at near light speed these unseen arrows now were piercing thousands of tissue cells. The thick aluminum walls of the capsule proved no barrier to these cosmic darts. Occasionally one would collide with the nucleus of an unlucky aluminum atom in the wall of the capsule, releasing myriads of secondary radiation and particles. Although all this was silent and invisible, Simons knew it was occurring. For 32 hours Simons and his silent, furry companions were bombarded by these primary and secondary particles.

When he got back to Earth he un-strapped his two emulsion plates and gave them to the radiobiologists who declared his body must have been peppered by galactic cosmic radiation piercing the capsule walls yet he showed no external sign of this. He was to remain the same man.

Not so the black mice from a previous flight. Three weeks after the mission, streaks of white hair began to appear in the black fur of the mice and soon they were a startling salt and pepper. The cosmic rays had struck nuclei in the hair follicles of the mice changing the hair color of the "hit" areas from black to white. This could only be DNA change, an observation having very serious connotations for the future of manned space flight.

This was the David Simons I met in 1957 at the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine. He was the first to demonstrate conclusively the threat of cosmic radiation as man climbed ever higher into the heavens. This is the man who called me to say that he would be delighted to assist in my work at the Brookhaven National Radiation Laboratory in designing countermeasures for our future astronauts as they prepare to return to the moon.

Duane Graveline MD MPH
Former USAF Flight Surgeon
Former NASA Astronaut
Retired Family Doctor

 

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