Three categories of experiments were proposed for the Mercury-Atlas 9 (MA-9) manned orbital mission: (1) space flight engineering and operations, (2) biomedical experiments, and (3) space science.

The trailing balloon, similar to the MA-7 (Carpenter flight), was to be included. This balloon would be ejected, inflated, trailed, and jettisoned while in orbit. Another experiment was the installation of a self-contained flashing beacon installed on the retropackage, which would be initiated and ejected from the retropackage during orbital flight. And a geiger counter experiment was planned to determine radiation levels at varying orbital altitudes.