Word: astronaut
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Outside his orbiting capsule in his own space suit, an astronaut will be a man beset by problems. A brief pulse of power from a backpack rocket will start him moving in any direction he desires, but it will take another carefully calculated pulse to stop him, still others to move him up, down, backward or into a turn. How will he handle the continuous need to control his versatile little rocket without letting that one job keep him too busy for other useful work...
...startling complexities. The most obvious scheme was one of the first to be discarded. Levers similar to the conventional aircraft control stick would be all but impossible of operation by a man with his arms in the stiff sleeves of an inflated space suit. And more important, an astronaut's hands would have to be free for a variety of exacting tasks...
...search began for subtler ways to control an AMU (Astronaut Maneuvering Unit). Some of them, such as motions of the leg, feet, head or torso, were quickly rejected by Honeywell engineers as too difficult for an astronaut floating in a clumsy space suit. Somewhat more attractive was control by the astronaut's eye movements. A photocell watching the position of the eyeball could steer the astronaut to any target at which he looked steadily. But such control would not be enough. The astronaut would sometimes want to move backwards, and in any case he must always have his eyes...
...Mouth. Finally Honeywell settled on the astronaut's mouth. Lip and tongue motions might do the job, but there is not much room in a space helmet, and extra equipment placed there would probably interfere with necessary speech over the radio. And the Honeywell men had a strong hunch that most astronauts would object to apparatus hitched to their lips or tongue...
...space, got an option on 60,000 of the company's shares at $19.81 each. Since R.C.C. shares are now orbiting above $24, Glenn's paper profits have already soared over the $250,000 mark. If the company's earnings keep climbing, Cola should land the astronaut safely on millionaire...