Approximate: 9.2 x 1cm, 0.1kg (3 5/8 x 3/8 in., 1/8lb.) (length as currently tied)
Type:
EQUIPMENT-Tools
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Summary:
In the mid-1960s, the Martin Company in Baltimore, Maryland, developed a set of prototype space tools for use during zero-G EVA (spacewalking in weightlessness) for the Gemini program. The U.S. Air Force Systems Command's Aero Propulsion Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, financed the development for astronaut experiments. Working with the commercial tool maker Black & Decker, Martin developed a set of tools that neutralized the reaction forces normally created by applying force or rotation while working in zero gravity. Tools were to be tested during EVAs on Gemini VIII and XI in 1966, but for different reasons, the experiments were never done.
The Martin Company gave this electrical wiring to the Smithsonian in 1967 as part of a set of Gemini EVA prototype tools.
