Expensive and complicated clothing – space suit
Astronauts conducting space flights must wear space suits made of special materials, special processes, special processing and special technologies. Some space suits cost tens of millions of dollars, making space suits the most expensive. Clothing, it is an important personal life-saving equipment to ensure the safety of astronauts.
The structure of the space suit. A space suit generally consists of a pressure chamber, helmet, gloves and boots. Its structure can be divided into soft, hard and mixed soft and hard. According to the purpose, space suits can be divided into two categories: indoor space suits and extravehicular space suits.
The cabin spacesuit is a spacesuit used by astronauts inside the spacecraft. If the spacecraft has an accident such as air leakage in the cabin during launch, orbit and return, wearing the cabin spacesuit will This can ensure the safety of astronauts. The size of the space suit is tailor-made for each astronaut. In-vehicle space suits generally consist of a space helmet, pressure suit, ventilation and oxygen supply hoses, gloves, boots and related accessories. It generally weighs 20 to 30 kilograms, and with a parachute attached, the weight can reach more than 40 kilograms.
Aerospace helmets generally have a sealed opening and closing mechanism and a spherical panoramic window.
The pressure suit is the main body of the space suit. It is generally a connected type where the upper and lower bodies are connected together. The pressure suit must have very good sealing properties and be able to maintain a sealed state even when inflated and pressurized. At the same time, the pressure garment must also ensure that the person’s limbs can move within a certain range.
Astronauts can either wear aerospace gloves on the cuffs of the pressure suit and ensure its sealing, or they can take off the gloves.
Boots are boots that are connected together with the pressure garment to form a whole and are not used alone. There are also removable sealed boots with disconnects, and overboots that can be worn over the restrictive layer of the pressure suit.
The spacesuit ventilation and oxygen supply hose is connected to the cabin ventilation and oxygen supply device. Under normal circumstances, it can provide whole-body ventilation to the astronauts wearing the spacesuit, keeping the astronauts in a more comfortable environment. Medium; When the cabin pressure drops sharply, the fan that ventilates the space suit will automatically shut down, leaving the space suit in a sealed oxygen supply state. The emergency oxygen supply device will send oxygen into the space suit through the clothing hose, and part of the oxygen will enter The helmet allows the astronaut to breathe and dissipate heat from the head, which is then discharged by the pressure regulator.
The extravehicular space suit mainly consists of a jacket, an airtight restriction layer, a helmet, gloves, boots, a liquid-cooling ventilation suit, a packaged device and other equipment.
The weight of the extravehicular spacesuits that have been used abroad is about 250 pounds. In addition to the functions of the in-vehicle spacesuits, the extravehicular spacesuits also have the added functions of preventing cosmic ray radiation, heat protection, and protection against microorganisms. Meteor impact, ultraviolet radiation and other functions. In order to ensure the thermal balance of the human body, a liquid cooling system was added, and a large bag was installed on the back of the space suit, which contained the life support system required by the astronauts.
The upper body of the extravehicular spacesuit is hard and equipped with arms and life support systems. The helmet is connected to the body. The helmet cannot move with the astronaut’s head and must move with the body. The movement of the astronaut’s limbs is connected by air-tight bearings and a movable joint to ensure the mobility of each joint of the limbs.
The jacket is a vacuum heat insulation barrier layer composed of multiple layers of protective materials. It has the functions of radiating radiation, heat insulation, fire prevention, and mitigating the impact of tiny meteorites. The airtight restriction layer is an important part of the extravehicular space suit. It is made of materials that are light in weight, non-toxic, high in compressive strength and small in elongation. Its function is to ensure the absolute sealing of the space suit, limit the expansion of the space suit, and make the space flight The limbs of the operator can move within a certain range.
The liquid-cooling ventilation suit is worn inside an airtight restriction layer. There are many plastic thin tubes on the torso and limbs of the space suit. When the liquid passes through, the heat can be taken away. In addition, ventilation ducts are installed.
There are two types of helmets, both of which are connected to the space suit through a collar. One has a face window that can be opened and closed at will. During emergency decompression, it can be opened and closed automatically and manually. The other is If you don’t wear it normally, wear it when necessary. A protective shield and a sunshade device to protect your eyes are also installed outside the helmet. Gloves and boots are connected to the restrictive layer of clothing.
The backpack device mainly consists of oxygen bottles and oxygen supply and pressure regulating components, water sublimators and water cooling circulation devices, air purification components, ventilation components, communication equipment, emergency oxygen supply subsystems, control components and It is composed of power supply, alarm subsystem, telemetry subsystem, etc. It can provide astronauts with oxygen needed for life, control the air pressure in the spacesuit, adjust the temperature in the spacesuit, and remove carbon dioxide, odor and trace pollution in the spacesuit. . When astronauts conduct extravehicular activities, the backpack device and the spacesuit can be used together to ensure that the astronauts can conduct extravehicular activities for 8 to 9 hours. At the same time, if the life support system in the cabin fails, the astronauts can be exposed to atmospheric pressure. In this way, even if a leak occurs in the spacecraft and the air in the cabin escapes, relying on the spacesuit can create a suitable environment for human survival around the human body. The micro-environment can effectively prevent the harm of low-pressure environment to astronauts, so it can be maintained within a certain period of time.�The safety of astronauts’ lives.
It is worth mentioning that when astronauts wear spacesuits in the cabin, they must connect the spacesuits with the environment and life support systems in the cabin and use them together. If the emergency rescue time is long, a urine collector can also be configured as needed to collect the astronauts’ urine and excretion.
The extravehicular space suit is a protective device that astronauts must wear when they go out of the vehicle and enter the space to operate. In a certain sense, the extravehicular space suit is a small spacecraft.
Because the space suit is airtight, air will not leak when you turn your head or wrist, making the space suit very difficult to wear. One astronaut can’t complete it. Service personnel can help when taking off. When returning, if several astronauts fly at the same time, they can help each other. One astronaut needs to wait for the arrival of relevant personnel.
Wearing clothes for astronauts can be said to be complicated. It takes a lot of effort for astronauts to wear clothes on the ground, and it is even more difficult in the weightlessness of space. To do this, astronauts need to practice dozens of times on the ground.
Since the designs of space suits are different, putting on and taking off space suits is different between the United States and the former Soviet Union/Russia. The Russian extravehicular spacesuit is in the form of a rear door, using a hard torso integrated with the helmet as a whole, while the limbs are soft bags. The astronauts enter the spacesuit from a hinged door on the back of the spacesuit. The American extravehicular space suit is a split type, consisting of a hard upper torso, a soft lower torso, sleeves, gloves, trouser legs and boots. The gloves are custom-made and the helmet is removable. The portable life support system is installed at the back of the hard torso, and the manual controls and displays are installed at the front. The upper and lower torsos of the space suit are connected by a waist disconnector. When an astronaut wears a space suit, he enters through the waist ring, first puts on the lower body, and then puts on the lower body. Upper body, it is difficult to complete alone and usually requires help from others. In contrast, most astronauts believe that Russian space suits are very durable, simple in structure, and flexible and convenient.
During human spaceflight, tragedies have occurred because people did not wear spacesuits.
From the late 1960s to the early 1970s, in order to catch up with the two-cabin spacecraft designed by the Americans, former Soviet designers changed the original two-cabin Soyuz spacecraft into a three-cabin spacecraft. Astronaut Dubrovski and his two comrades had to “squeeze” into this narrow spacecraft, giving up their spacesuits that took up a lot of space.
On June 30, 1971, Dubrovski, Volgov and Bachaev completed more than three weeks of work on the “Salyut” orbital space station and entered the “Soyuz-Soyuz” orbital space station. 11″ carries the spacecraft back to Earth. When the spacecraft was about to enter the atmosphere, the ventilation safety valve in the cockpit connected to the outside world suddenly loosened. After the air pressure valve loosened, the small ventilation window on the spacecraft opened and closed rapidly, and the air in the cabin quickly dispersed into space. The air pressure in the cabin dropped from 900 mmHg to 500 mmHg in 20 seconds. It dropped to 170 mmHg after 1 minute!
Four seconds after the air leak occurred in the spacecraft, Dubrovski’s inhalation number reached 48 times per minute, while a normal person would inhale 16 times. At this time, Dubrovski almost entered He was in a near-death state, and half a minute later, death came. During the autopsy, it was found that the three astronauts’ near-death symptoms were almost identical. They all had signs of cerebral hemorrhage, lung congestion, and eardrum damage. If they had put on spacesuits, this tragedy could have been completely avoidedAASDFWFWFWE
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