Another astronaut knife

[tiguy7]

Many years ago I went to the Smithsonian Institution to see among other things the stuff that the astronauts took to the moon. I was intrigued by the stainless steel white handled machete which was used to ? split open coconuts on the moon? They said that it cost $1,000,000 per pound to send stuff to the moon. The knife looked to be about one pound. I don't suppose that they got a million bucks worth of use out of that blade.

 

[GIRLYmann]

think it's a Case made machete.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7904632
so why large knives in space?
it's close to ground than what one might think.
http://www.impactlab.com/2009/02/03/guns-in-orbit/
http://modern-war.suite101.com/article.cfm/us_survival_knives_in_space

 

[3Guardsmen]

Here is the newest NASA knife:


In 1999 NASA approached Emerson with a special request for a knife for use on Space Shuttle missions and the International Space Station to replace the Randall Model 17 Astronaut Knife. Rather than design a new model from scratch, NASA chose an existing model which already met their specifications, with one additional design requirement. The model is a folding version of the Specwar knife that Emerson had designed for Timberline with the addition of a guthook cut into the tanto point of the blade with which astronauts could open their freeze dried food packages. The knife features the NASA logo and is not available for purchase outside of NASA.

Because the rest of the blade was insufficient to open freeze dried food packets??

I can only assume that it has something to do with making the job easier/safer. possibly opening such things is more difficult in zero-G, as the package tries to do things we don't experience on the ground.

The only thing I imagine being less functional for utility chores than a thick, chisel-ground, "American Tanto" point would be one with a guthook added to it!:barf:

One would think a simple "V-cutter" would do the trick with far fewer "safety concerns."

 

[Confederate]

Tom Sachs is a huge artist. He is very famous and very influential in art circles. $500 is dead cheap for a Tom Sachs' piece, which is why that run sold out.

If you like an artist, and if you like a particular work, and can afford to buy it, acquiring one would make sense.

If you have two identical pens, and one went to the moon with an astronaut, that pen will be worth a premium price because wealthy people will covet it. If I had a lot of money and the chance to buy the pistol that Maj. Douglas MacArthur used to kill his assailants in the Philippines when he was ambushed, I'd snap it up in a heartbeat! (Ditto for the .45 he carried on his historic return to the Philippines during WWII.)
It's all sentiment.

The knife displayed above does nothing for me. It's not particularly attractive and it looks like a Spyderco, so where the artistic value lies escapes me.

I'm kinda kicking myself for not picking one of those up when I had the chance, I like his work a lot. That run was definitely for art collectors, not knife folks.

Well, it's probably for both. I'm a gun person, myself, so it would make sense that works of art involving guns would appeal more to gun people.

There's nothing really outstanding about this knife to me. Just stamping "NASA" on it and coating the blade means nothing. A lot of what passes for "art" these days is ridiculous.

 

[rupsty]

I own one of these NASA knives by Tom Sachs. We did work on his "Space Program" book. It was done in partial trade. I'm glad I got it!

 

[singularity35]

Then, how do we know that it was actually "fully functional?"

Hehehe. I'm with you mang.

 

[Critter]

Many years ago I went to the Smithsonian Institution to see among other things the stuff that the astronauts took to the moon. I was intrigued by the stainless steel white handled machete which was used to ? split open coconuts on the moon? They said that it cost $1,000,000 per pound to send stuff to the moon. The knife looked to be about one pound. I don't suppose that they got a million bucks worth of use out of that blade.

Having spent some considerable time looking through the Smithsonian Air & Space archives of survival kits and such, I am guessing you are referring to the machete which was part of the Apollo survival kit. It wasn't for use on the moon, was not part of the Lunar Lander, but rather in case of a landing that went wrong back home on Earth. Whether that was a good investment as a survival tool is a topic of debate, but in any case, it was an understandable inclusion in a survival kit from that era. You can view the kit and the machete here: http://airandspace.si.edu/events/apollo11/objects/apolloartifact.cfm?id=A19980011000 Hi-Rez image here: http://airandspace.si.edu/webimages/collections//full/A19980011000cp05.jpg