Simons experienced isolation in space

  • Published
  • By Michael Shinabery
  • New Mexico Museum of Space History
ALAMOGORDO, N.M. --  Dave Simons awoke aboard Man High II and radioed "he was completely disoriented," a 1958 article "Wonders of the Universe" reported. Simons, launched from an open pit copper mine near Crosby, Minn., was sealed into an eight-foot-tall by three-feet-diameter capsule crammed with equipment. Floating under a balloon in near-space, he was studying how humans, isolated in space, react.

Born in 1922 in Lancaster, Penn., Dr. David Simons celebrates a birthday June 7.

The Army Medical Corps placed Simons, who had recently earned his M.D., on active duty in 1947. Soon after he entered the Air Force, and in 1948 was named project officer for animal studies in V-2 rocket flights at White Sands Proving Grounds.

According to a document, "Five V-2 and three Aerobee rocket flights were accomplished between 16 June 1948 and 21 May 1952, at altitudes of 36-81 miles, with total success and survival of two monkeys and two mice in the last flights."

Subsequently, when Simons became chief of space biology at the Air Force Missile Development Center, Holloman Air Force Base (1953-59), he was named lead officer on Project 7851, a balloon program that studied cosmic radiation and space conditions such as weightlessness. Aug. 19, 1957, Simons squeezed into the Man High II capsule to experience those conditions firsthand. The goals, documents stated, included assessing "a closed system for survival and a pressure suit (that would be) field tested for the first time at the Threshold of Space."

Since World War II, the Army had launched balloons around the Tularosa Basin "in reaction to the Japanese balloon bombs that landed in Pacific coastal areas," Craig Ryan wrote in "The Pre-Astronauts" (Naval Institute Press/1995). "One of the first postwar manned balloon flights sponsored by the military was launched from the Tularosa Basin in 1947 with the intent of crossing the Rockies and landing somewhere along the Eastern Seaboard. Unfortunately, the entire flight's supply of ballast was expended in the crossing of the Sacramento range to the east of Alamogordo and the balloon's journey ended just short of Roswell."

Simons' Man High II preparation "consumed his life," Ryan said, even as lack of money threatened the project. Balloon maker Winzen Research loaned $14,000. Vera Winzen, in the documentary "The Highest Step In The World (Foolish Earthling Productions Ltd./(2001) said the Air Force never repaid.

In addition, Life magazine paid $3,500 for an "officially calibrated barograph ... to certify an altitude record," Ryan said. "Simons had little personal interest in the quest to certify an altitude record, but he was not opposed to it, either. ... 'I saw no reason why we shouldn't get credit for a record if we set one, but that wasn't why we were going,' " Simons said.

Simons was inserted into the capsule for 11 hours before launch. The balloon rose 1,100 feet per minute and, two hours and 15 minutes later, reached 100,516 feet. There he found sound was non-existent. Colors "proved to be almost indescribable," Ryan said. "It dawned on him that he was seeing something else that others could only imagine. He was seeing the curvature of the earth."

"The stars glow like an animal's eyes," Simons radioed. "I have a ringside view of the heavens."

He was so entranced Ryan said Simons "neglected eating." Simons' last meal had been a pre-launch cheeseburger. His blood sugar level fell, his speech was slurred and his movements were sluggish. Ryan said Simons ate chocolate to recover, but after hours in the cramped confines his "knees ached and his back hurt."

Simons fell asleep after midnight until, Ryan and "Highest Step In The World" stated, bright flashes jolted him awake. While the problem turned out to be a camera flash that humidity had caused to malfunction, the cold had deflated the balloon which dropped to 68,000 feet. Simons, fearing lightning would strike the 300-foot dangling communications antenna, dropped 100 pounds of batteries. "The gondola jumped hard," Ryan said, and the balloon rose.

Simons breakfasted on cold ham and eggs, sliced peaches and a nut roll. Other problems ensued. The capsule interior was a frigid 34 degrees, and losing the batteries meant losing power. The rising sun's warmth aided ascent, but at 11:30 a.m. the interior was a stifling 82 degrees. Carbon dioxide readings were near toxic, Ryan said.

Ground crews ordered descent. Simons dropped 1,300 fpm according to "The Pre-Astronauts," and 32 hours after launch a parachute floated the capsule into a plowed field near Elm Lake, South Dakota. He landed 405 miles from the launch site.

Simons crawled out of Man High II and calmly greeted a farmer with, "Hello. How are you today?" Ryan wrote.

The farmer seemed unimpressed, Ryan said, until a rescue crew arrived in a helicopter. The suddenly excited farmer exclaimed, "I always wanted to see one of them."

Simons "broke all existing records for free balloon flight to that time." The U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce made the accolade later in 1947 when the organization feted Simons as one of its "10 Outstanding Young Men" during the 20th annual awards in Phoenix.

The Air Force awarded Simons the Distinguished Flying Cross, and he wrote "Man High." The New York Times Book Review, on July 24, 1960, quoted from the book: "The lesson of this unexpected but priceless experiment was abundantly clear. An essential quality would be stamina; not in a purely physical sense but in a psychophysiological sense: a combination of deep physical reserves plus the all important emotional determination to use those reserves."

On March 3, 1963, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported Simons attended the 15th annual reunion of Fellows' Alumni Association of Ochsner Medical Foundation, held at Brooks Air Force Base. "A key phase of research in space medicine is the designing of a machine to measure fatigue, the chief of the Air Force's aviation medicine department said here Saturday. 'Once you have a system for measuring how tired or anxious a person is it will not only be useful in space but can be used clinically,' said Lt. Col. David G. Simons ... 'There is no simple and reliable method now for measuring whether a person is just plain too tired, is anxious, or undergoing some other nervous reaction,' he said."

Simons, who continued his career as an academic clinical professor, has co-authored numerous books on overcoming pain.