Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!zehntel!dual!amd!pesnta!hplabs!hao!seismo!brl-tgr!wmartin
From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Astronaut equipment: knives
Message-ID: <7520@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 18-Jan-85 18:06:49 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.7520
Posted: Fri Jan 18 18:06:49 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 24-Jan-85 06:54:14 EST
Distribution: na
Organization: USAMC ALMSA
Lines: 21

A query for some of the NASA or other knowledgeable readers:

Back in the days of the Mercury (& I guess Gemini & Apollo) program(s),
one of the items of gear was an "astronaut's knife" -- the one I know about
was a machete-like thing made by Case, designed to hack through the wall 
of the capsule for emergency exits. (Copies of these were sold by Case,
in a rather garish-looking package, and went out of production after a
short run. They are now worth ten or more times original list on the
collectors' market.)

Do the shuttle astronauts have any form of issued knives (not food knives
in the galley, if any are provided, but equipment knives, as part of the
tools or emergency gear)? Is there any form of knife available to an
astronaut during EVA as part of the equipment on the outside of the
space suit or MMU? What inspires this is the memory of a comment that some
fiberglass insulation blocked the attachment to Solar Max; I wondered
why they couldn't simply cut away the offending protrusion.

Will Martin

USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin     or   ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA