Flexi-Firm Tether

At the end of his tether during a space walk, the astronaut suddenly seems to be in trouble. His command pilot orders him back aboard the spacecraft, but he does not respond. Something has happened to him, and obviously he must be recovered. But how?

The problem could arise during any extravehicular activity, and the answer seems simple: haul in the tether. But in frictionless space, the free-floating astronaut is orbiting the spaceship as it circles the earth, and any attempt to pull him in would make him rotate around it so fast that he would be ultimately subjected to fatal G forces. He would also be moving at an uncontrollable speed when he finally reached--and crashed into--the spacecraft.

The problem puzzled General Electric's Dr. Theodore Marton until one evening when he was playing with his son's stand-mounted toy dog made of beads. When the bottom of the stand was pressed up, the string threaded through the beads relaxed and the dog collapsed; when it was released, the strung-together dog was pulled into shape again. Why not use the same simple principle in a tether? So Marton built a new space line of interlocking aluminum balls and collars, all strung on a central cable. When the cable is loose, the tether is completely flexible, bending at each ball joint. But when tightened by a winch or a similar device, the cable pulls all parts together and in effect freezes the line in whatever position it is in. It then becomes the functional equivalent of a stick. If the astronaut's power pack has malfunctioned but he is otherwise alright, he can pull himself in, hand over hand, on the rigid tether. If he is unconscious, the loose tether can be gently reeled in, then made rigid to stop him in relation to the spacecraft, then reeled again, and so on until he reaches the hatch.

Toy, Too. This finding alone was enough to interest the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. But ever since making the first one, Dr. Marton has been thinking of more applications for his discovery. Two of the flexi-firm tethers, attached to either side of an astronaut's belt, could be clamped anywhere on the spacecraft, effectively fixing him in position and thereby giving him work stability and leverage. Thicker, stronger versions could be used as construction parts in space and on the moon. Shipped aloft coiled, they could then be set permanently in any needed position by turning a cable-tightening screw.

Back on earth, the ingenious rope could be used underwater to aid aquanauts. Average citizens might well want a version to moor a boat or tow a car, the idea in both cases being to keep things apart as well as together. And Dr. Marton thinks his brainchild might make a big public impact from whence it sprang--as a toy. Flung out loose and then frozen, it makes a marvelously accurate lasso as well as tripper-upper and grabber-onto of things it wraps around. His two children have already demolished two of his homemade versions.

Construction in space could also be aided by a new shelter developed under an Air Force contract at Hughes Aircraft. The prefabricated shelters would be made of fiber-glass cloth and ordinary gelatin. Folded and sealed into an airtight package, each could be unfolded when and where needed. Exposed to the moon's vacuum, for instance, the water in the gelatin would quickly evaporate, hardening the gelatin-soaked cloth into a near-instant solid dwelling for astronauts of the future.

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