SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission completes first commercial spacewalk SpaceX's inaugural commercial spacewalk – and the first extravehicular activity (EVA) using its spacesuits – has taken place, almost eclipsing yesterday's altitude record. The four astronauts on the Polaris Dawn mission completed a pre-breathe process before donning their suits for the depressurization of the Crew Dragon …
SmarterEveryDay did a good video 5 months ago, that covered suit pressurisation and the decisions underway for Artemis. It's over an hour long, but it was an interesting watch.
They're already flying through higher radiation levels than anyone since the Gemini missions - although 80% of exposure comes from a few passes through the South Atlantic anomaly rather than because they're grazing the underside of the inner Van Allen belt
Incidentally, the quoted figures for V-A Belt exposure are usually quoted _per year_ and whilst high shouldn't be a health hazard unless one of those flares you mentioned kicks off
Actually, from an episode of Youtube channel "Smarter Every Day", in terms of managing pressure, the pressure differential in space is 1 atmosphere.
Underwater on Earth, it's many multiples so if you think of a deep sea diving suit it's nothing like a space suit.
You think we'd have sorted out the space suit one already but there are radiation and other concerns
Off the top of my head:
* Deep sea diving is a compression problem; hard vacuum is a tension problem
* Deep sea temperature regulation is over a range of maybe 20C? Space is a much wider range
* Mass isn't such a problem with a diving suit: make it as heavy as you like and buoyancy will help; space suits have to fit into the mass budget of the launcher
Have SpaceX managed to solve the problem of visor fogging? The last I heard that was still a problem with the ISS suits.
It's about 1.4kW per square metre in space, which is a fair bit of solar energy to manage (hence a white suit I presume to reflect it away in the first place). I'm roughly estimating that an adult space suit presents a bit less than 1 square metre to the sun.
The human body produces about 100W of heat at rest and that's got to be gotten rid of. In space you can't sweat, pant or conduct it away, it all has to be captured by the suit life support system and radiated away somehow. I presume this was what you were referring to with your "combination with the vacuum" comment.
In the vaccuum of space, while you've got the intensity of solar radation when facing the sun, it's only when facing the sun, so that's a lot less total than in an atmosphere. The point about articulation is that, as soon as you bend the material, you're compressing and stretching so you're going to be introducing pressure and tension differentials, which are likely to increase the chances of leaks.
Budget
Space suits are rarely a vote winning issue. The current NASA xEMU suits for ISS have been in use since 1998. I do not mean the design. I really mean the actual suits are that old. They are based on the suits used in the space shuttle from 1983. The Artemis program would look very silly if they got to the Moon but could not go outside because they did not have Moon suits (xEMU is not designed for the Moon). I assume NASA only got funds for Moon suits in 2022 because the Apollo suits from 1972 are no longer functional.
Diving as you describe can be made to work down to 500m. Atmospheric diving suits keep the occupant at 1 atmosphere down to 700m.
I wanted to link to what the axiom suit looks like under the protective fabric. I think they are keeping that to themselves for the time being. The closest I could find was the AX-5 prototype which resembles an atmospheric diving suit.
Those atmospheric diving suits suggest a similar concept for space suits would probably work. Rigid sections with rotating joints. The rigid sections can be much less bulky and heavy in a space suit because the pressure difference is much less. The joint seals would be "inside out". Weight could be an issue though.
Early feedback is good, couple of points that might need reviewing
- Opening the hatch was a bit tricker then expected.
- Mobility not quite as good as expected.
- Potential overheating.
- hatch seal needed checking / adjusting before closing
- Handle position.
And still lots of work to do lower body mobility amd self contained.
Considering this is the first EVA for this suit, it did amazingly well and expect another iteration maybe as early as next year.
Making space suits is hard. NASA gave up developing Artemis suits inhouse and that contract is now with Axiom. And Colins who are pretty experienced in space development have given up on the ISS suit contract. NASA has asked Axiom on the possibility of adapting Artemis suits for ISS and I am sure they will be following SpaceX's progress with their suits. Amd BTW, this is a real issue. NASA has had to scrub and cut short EVA activities because of issues with the existing suits.
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