Those Polaris Dawn Space Suits
Added 2024-09-16 18:01:36 +0000 UTCOxygen is a life giving molecule - until you have too much of it! In this livestream excerpt I went on to talk about the historic Polaris Dawn spacewalks and those slim high-tech SpaceX suits.
Comments
Quite an Ultravox vibe going at the end there Fran. 👍
Zygmunt Dean
2024-09-17 16:21:41 +0000 UTCThey probably went higher to avoid space junk.
Greg Richard
2024-09-17 14:15:59 +0000 UTCThis is off topic, but much as I like the Kaossilator it was really good to hear you playing guitar again, especially such a cute dinky one.
David Peaker
2024-09-16 22:47:03 +0000 UTCFascinating analysis Fran, I had wondered by the EVA took place during the night part of the orbit, which now makes sense. The real danger which resulted in the Apollo 1 fire, was that io seal the hatch, the craft had to be pressurized at more than the 14.7 psi air pressure at sea level resulting in the high flammability while the craft was on the ground, while the craft would be vented down to about psi as it climbed through the thinning atmosphere. The material inside the Command Module was essentially fire resistant when the craft was in space. Incredibly the danger of fire on the ground was something that hadn’t been considered, and they got away with using pure O2 in Mercury and Gemini, venting down to 5 psi during the ascent. Mercury and Gemini had the advantage of having hatches which could be explosively opened. The Block 1 Apollo, however had a two part hatch the inner part of which opened inward and had to be opened with a tool. There was no way to open that hatch quickly and even Ed While as strong as he was couldn’t open it against the rapidly increasing pressure caused by the fire. In the post Apollo 1 modifications not only was great care used to eliminate material that could burn inside the spacecraft and a fast release outward opening hatch was used, but while on the ground the spacecraft had 40% nitrogen which greatly resumed the flammability, the crews would have 100% O2 in their suits to avoid the bends as the craft vented down from 15 psi to 5 psi during the launch and pure O2 was then used for the flight.
TEB
2024-09-16 22:01:34 +0000 UTCInteresting. I missed the suit temp callout. 95 degrees seems pretty high considering the otherwise optimal conditions. They will miss those liquid cooling garments once they start doing real work. Also, I noticed immediately that the "neutral" position for wrist flex seems anything but, forcing the wearers hand significantly forward.
Fred Patton
2024-09-16 18:33:05 +0000 UTC
