Rescue in Orbit

The first manned space station has yet to be shot aloft, but earthbound engineers are already dealing with the possibility of accident in orbit, struggling with the difficult problem of bringing men back alive from some far-out disaster. What will happen, for example, if a spacecraft's retrorockets are disabled so that it cannot slow down for the long descent toward home? Will the occupants have to be abandoned?

Not necessarily, Aerodynamicist Robert Brodsky told the Institute of the Aerospace Sciences in Manhattan last week. Spaceships, like ocean liners, said Dr. Brodsky, can carry lifeboats. When stowed on board, a Brodsky-designed lifeboat will be a cylinder of strong, heat-resistant plastic up to 1 yd. in diameter, 11 ft. long, and weighing about 1,000 lbs. Inside will be an airtight capsule large enough to hold one man lying face down. A crewman bailing out will crawl into the capsule and detach the lifeboat from the spaceship. As soon as it is clear, nitrogen gas from a pressure vessel will inflate a pair of winglike spars made of heat-resistant woven-wire cloth. As the wings expand, the cylinder will split, forming a heat shield that will protect the leading edges of the wings. The inflated lifeboat will be an air-and space-worthy paraglider (see diagram).

The little spacecraft will have its own retrorocket to start its slanting down toward the atmosphere. Guidance apparatus will do most of the navigation and report to the passenger on the success of the perilous maneuver. Dr. Brodsky is confident that the plastic-faced wings can resist the heat of entry into the earth's air. As the paraglider gets deeper into the atmosphere, its speed will drop steadily. At last it will drift slowly near the earth, and the pilot, flying it like an old-fashioned glider, will be able to select a favorable spot on which to land. If he fires his retrorocket at roughly the right time, he may be able to avoid such inhospitable areas as the broad Pacific or the cold wastes of Antarctica.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.