Amazing set of four flown visual acuity cards carried aboard Gemini missions 5 and 7, and presented to Dr. John H. Taylor, the main investigator at NASA's Australian visibility laboratory. Each laminated double-sided card measures 1.5 x 2.5, and was personally used by astronauts Gordon Cooper, Charles Conrad, Frank Borman, and James Lovell for the "Gemini In-flight Visual Acuity Experiment S-8/D-13,” with each astronaut filling out the front and back of their respective cards, with all but Borman adding their last names on either side; Borman, in turn, writes "B" and "L" in the "Pilot" field. The cards are displayed in Plexiglas and mounted atop a walnut base with informational plaques on both sides to an overall size of 10 x 5.25 x 2.75. In overall fine condition.
Accompanied by copies of two extensive packets relating to "Visual Acuity and Astronaut Visibility" and "Experiments on Visual Acuity and the Visibility of Markings on the Ground in Long-Duration Earth-Orbital Space Flight," as well as a set of six vintage official NASA photographs, 8 x 10 and 10 x 8, depicting various facilities and astronauts like Cooper, Conrad, and Neil Armstrong during visual acuity tests. Also accompanied by a letter of provenance from the son of Dr. Taylor, in part: "My father…was under contract with NASA during the Gemini program to conduct visual acuity experiments on the astronauts in preparation for the moon landing. After Gordon Cooper started seeing certain objects on the surface of the earth on the last of his Mercury flights, it was determined that these experiments would be necessary as they did not know what the effects of weightlessness would have on the shape of the human eye…My father…was the lead scientist in the San Diego based visibility laboratory at the Naval Electronics Lab. The experiments, which were designated by NASA as Project R131 were to determine man's ability to distinguish objects on the earth and on board the spacecraft with an unaided eye. My dad…spent many months in Australia building huge 'eye charts' in the outback for the fly-by experiments…At the completion of the Gemini program, NASA presented my father these visual acuity cards that were used during the experiments in space from Cooper, Conrad, Borman and Lovell…The test cards which my father designed and I have inherited, flew in space aboard Gemini V and VII and were signed by each of the four astronauts."
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