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Speaker 1: Welcome to tex Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tex Stuff. I'm your host

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Speaker 1: job than Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio

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Speaker 1: and I love all Things sech And we are continuing

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Speaker 1: our series about space suits and their evolution. So the

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Speaker 1: last episode we really focused on the suits used in

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Speaker 1: the Apollo missions. We also talked a lot about pooping

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Speaker 1: in space, which I felt was necessary to talk about.

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Speaker 1: It's also necessary to do sometimes, and those Apollo space

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Speaker 1: which actually did change a bit over time. I'll talk

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Speaker 1: a little bit about that in this episode, because the

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Speaker 1: suits that were used in the final missions were a

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Speaker 1: little different from the earlier ones, but overall they were

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Speaker 1: mostly kept to the same design once you got to

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Speaker 1: the block to Apollo missions after the canceled Block one design.

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Speaker 1: And now we're going to talk a bit about the

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Speaker 1: p l s S, which, depending upon what source you're reading,

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Speaker 1: either stands for portable life support system or primary life

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Speaker 1: support system, but in the case of Apollo, it really

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Speaker 1: means the backpack. This is the life support system that

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Speaker 1: attached to the suit and allowed astronauts like Neil Armstrong

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Speaker 1: to you know, gallivan around on the Moon without being

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Speaker 1: connected by a life support umbilical tether to you know,

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Speaker 1: like the lunar module. The p l S S would

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Speaker 1: provide the pressurization needed inside the suit as well as

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Speaker 1: the oxygen that the astronauts breathe. The ability to scrub

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Speaker 1: c O two from the suit also very important, and

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Speaker 1: it also acted as a cooling system to help with

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Speaker 1: temperature control with the water cooling. So in addition, astronauts

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Speaker 1: on the Moon also had an Oxygen Purge System or OPS,

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Speaker 1: which stood in as an emergency backup should the p

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Speaker 1: l s S fail. So while it's as oxygen purge

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Speaker 1: system and it makes it sound like you're getting rid

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Speaker 1: of all your oxygen, it was a secondary oxygen source,

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Speaker 1: but it only gave the astronauts really enough time to

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Speaker 1: be able to return to the lunar module and then

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Speaker 1: connect their suits back to the module's life support system

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Speaker 1: if things really went you know, pear shaped. The p

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Speaker 1: L S S started off in development in nineteen six one,

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Speaker 1: nearly a decade before one would be used on the Moon,

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Speaker 1: and that was necessary because we were learning so much

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Speaker 1: about what would be needed in order to make a

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Speaker 1: Moon mission successful. So while development was begun back then,

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Speaker 1: a lot of the stuff we learned would mean we'd

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Speaker 1: have to change designs. For one thing, engineers learned that

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Speaker 1: the metabolic requirements to get stuff done in space were

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Speaker 1: really way higher than what was initially estimated, which meant

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Speaker 1: astronauts were having to put forth a lot more effort

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Speaker 1: than was originally guessed, and that meant that the life

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Speaker 1: support says STEMS would need to keep up with that

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Speaker 1: in order to supply the necessary oxygen and keep the

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Speaker 1: astronauts body temperature at an acceptable level. But how do

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Speaker 1: you cool off the water circulating through the suit. If

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Speaker 1: you remember, a an inner layer of the suit had

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Speaker 1: plastic tubes essentially through which water would run and carry

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Speaker 1: body heat away. Well, you've got to get rid of

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Speaker 1: that heat, right, you have to have some sort of

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Speaker 1: heat exchange in order for the water to cool down again.

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Speaker 1: Otherwise eventually you're just going to be running body temperature

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Speaker 1: level water or hotter through the suit, and that doesn't

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Speaker 1: help you with maintaining a right temperature. Well, in this case,

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Speaker 1: the answer ended up being a plate that to the

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Speaker 1: naked eye seemed like it was a solid plate, but

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Speaker 1: in fact it had microscopic pours in that plate, so

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Speaker 1: warm water from the cooling system would fill up those

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Speaker 1: pores just a little bit, not a whole lot of water,

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Speaker 1: and then it would just boil off into space. And

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Speaker 1: because boiling is an endothermic reaction, it actually carried heat

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Speaker 1: away from the system, and that would cool the water

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Speaker 1: that remained, uh, and some of that water would just

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Speaker 1: freeze in those pores, effectively sealing the pores. But then

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Speaker 1: this water would get warmed by the cooling system or

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Speaker 1: the gas circulating system, and the process would repeat itself,

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Speaker 1: and it would continuously cool as long as you had

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Speaker 1: enough water running in the system, and you weren't losing

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Speaker 1: a ton of it, you know, all at once or anything.

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Speaker 1: It was little bits, so it could run for a

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Speaker 1: while before being depleted. The invention would end up being

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Speaker 1: used in many future space technologies, including the International Space Station,

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Speaker 1: so not just for space suits. Now, I mentioned that

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Speaker 1: the p LSS had an oxygen supply, which is obviously

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Speaker 1: a necessary component for a life support system for a

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Speaker 1: human being, and this was pure oxygen as opposed to

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Speaker 1: the mix of gases that we breathe here on Earth.

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Speaker 1: A typical lungfull down here on the planet is nitrogen

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Speaker 1: twenty one oxygen and then everything else like argonne, carbon dioxide,

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Speaker 1: and some trace elements. All of that is less than

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Speaker 1: a percentage point each. However, in a low pressure environment,

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Speaker 1: going with this kind of mixture could lead to a

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Speaker 1: dangerous situation in which you don't have enough of a

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Speaker 1: concentration of O two in the astronauts lungs and their blood.

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Speaker 1: So most space life support systems actually rely on a

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Speaker 1: supply of pure oxygen instead. Oh an interesting fact, the

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Speaker 1: Space Shuttle and the International Space Station have or you know,

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Speaker 1: in the case of the Space Shuttle had internal atmospheres

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Speaker 1: that mirrored Earth's atmospheres, and for that reason, astronauts dawning

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Speaker 1: spacesuits for a n e v A first had to

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Speaker 1: engage in a bit of pre breathe the activity, which

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Speaker 1: is somewhat confusing, right, I mean, it's a weird thing

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Speaker 1: to say, but what it means is that they had

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Speaker 1: to strap on a mask and breathe pure oxygen for

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Speaker 1: like a period of like four hours in some cases

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Speaker 1: before getting into the space suit and relying on the

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Speaker 1: spacesuits life support system. And the whole reason for doing

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Speaker 1: that was to have a gradual process to remove nitrogen

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Speaker 1: from the astronauts blood, which in turn would reduce the

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Speaker 1: chance that the astronaut would get the bends once heading

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Speaker 1: into the low pressure environment of outer space, just like

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Speaker 1: you would see with someone who is you know, deep

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Speaker 1: sea diving. All right, tangent over, let's get back to

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Speaker 1: the p l s S. Well, it turns out that

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Speaker 1: we humans, you know, we breathe an oxygen and we

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Speaker 1: breathe out carbon dioxide among some other stuff. It's not

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Speaker 1: just pure CEO two. And if we have a significant

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Speaker 1: build up of c O two in our environment, and

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Speaker 1: by significant I mean if CEO two levels rise up

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Speaker 1: to be about eight percent of what we're breathing, well

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Speaker 1: we can't breathe proper. Really it actually it becomes toxic,

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Speaker 1: and obviously that's a problem, potentially a deadly one. So

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Speaker 1: there had to be a way to remove c O

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Speaker 1: two from the suit. So you can think of it

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Speaker 1: as there being one port into which pure oxygen flows in,

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Speaker 1: and there's another port where c O two, mix of

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Speaker 1: c O two and other stuff could exit the suit.

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Speaker 1: And then you would have a scrubbing system consisting of

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Speaker 1: tanks holding a substance called lithium hydrox side and that

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Speaker 1: would do the job of scrubbing CEO two. You see,

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Speaker 1: c O two and lithium hydrox side have a chemical

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Speaker 1: reaction together that produces water and lithium carbonate, and it's

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Speaker 1: pretty darn good at it. You don't need a whole

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Speaker 1: lot of uh this, you know, lithium hydroxide to do

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Speaker 1: the job to remove a good amount of c O

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Speaker 1: two from space. So that's good from a space saving

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Speaker 1: and a weight saving standpoint. So a lot of space

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Speaker 1: suits and spacecraft use canisters of lithium hydroxide in or

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Speaker 1: to remove CEO two from the environment, and then the

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Speaker 1: water from that process can be used in other functions,

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Speaker 1: either like drinking water or an oxygen generator or even

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Speaker 1: you know, the water cooling system and the p l

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Speaker 1: s s would also connect through the suit using multiple

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Speaker 1: connectors so that everything could work in harmony with each other.

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Speaker 1: So obviously like the suit had connectors that docked with

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Speaker 1: the p LSS to allow the functions to go through.

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Speaker 1: For example, in order to have an effective cooling system,

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Speaker 1: you had to connect the water lines in the LCG suit,

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Speaker 1: which remember is underneath all these other layers with the

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Speaker 1: p l S S, and that meant that you had

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Speaker 1: to have these these special things built in so that

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Speaker 1: you had these connections without obviously making any weakness points

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Speaker 1: in the suit. So NASA developed special connectors that would

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Speaker 1: allow this to happen without causing a breach in the system.

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Speaker 1: Pretty ingenious really, to have everything hook up like this.

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Speaker 1: The suit and p L S S continued to evolve

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Speaker 1: over the course of the Apollomys, with later missions taking

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Speaker 1: advantage of lessons learned from the earlier ones, and sometimes

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Speaker 1: those plans had to change in the process. So, for example,

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Speaker 1: while the world marveled at the successful moon landing of

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Speaker 1: Apollo eleven, NASA was already planning ahead to create systems

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Speaker 1: that would allow for longer operation on the Moon, which

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Speaker 1: obviously necessitated more consideration for life support, and to that end,

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Speaker 1: they planned to make p L S S units that

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Speaker 1: could provide life support functions for longer durations. However, budget

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Speaker 1: constraints meant that some of those plans got cut that

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Speaker 1: couldn't afford to do all of them. What was to

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Speaker 1: be a larger secondary life support system got scrapped because

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Speaker 1: there just wasn't money in the budget to have that

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Speaker 1: so what takes its place. Well, it was what was

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Speaker 1: called a buddy life support system or b l s S,

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Speaker 1: and I bet you can figure out immediately what that means.

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Speaker 1: It would allow for someone who had a working life

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Speaker 1: support system to connect their suit directly to a second

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Speaker 1: astronaut who perhaps had a depleted or malfunctioning p LSS,

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Speaker 1: and then the two astronauts could then make their way

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Speaker 1: back to the spacecraft, where they would hook into the

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Speaker 1: spacecraft's life support system. It kind of makes me think

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Speaker 1: of drills in which two scuba divers would share the

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Speaker 1: same scuba tank between them in the event of one

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Speaker 1: scuba divers tank running out of oxygen or otherwise malfunctioning.

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Speaker 1: While astronauts on Apollo missions fourteen through seventeen had the

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Speaker 1: system available, fortunately there was never a need to actually

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Speaker 1: use it. So the buddy system existed, but no one

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Speaker 1: ever had to take advantage of it. It was kind

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Speaker 1: of they're just in case now. The last Apollo mission

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Speaker 1: of the actual Apollo program had the designation Apollo seventeen

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Speaker 1: and was in December of nineteen two. Following that, NASA

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Speaker 1: focused on the first American laboratory in orbit around Earth,

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Speaker 1: which had the name sky Lab, and in order to

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Speaker 1: get stuff, you know, to and from sky Lab, they

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Speaker 1: relied upon unused Apollo capsules And I'll have to do

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Speaker 1: a full episode about sky Lab in the future. But

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Speaker 1: the suits that astronauts wore while aboard sky Lab were

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Speaker 1: very similar to the ones that were using the final

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Speaker 1: three Apollo missions, called the A seven lb pressure suit.

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Speaker 1: The one that Neil Armstrong wore back in Apollo eleven

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Speaker 1: was the A seven L, so that one did not

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Speaker 1: have the B attached to it, and the Skylab version

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Speaker 1: had an extra thermal garment as part of the suit.

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Speaker 1: The lunar landing versions of the A seven lb allowed

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Speaker 1: for greater mobility and were designed so that astronauts could

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Speaker 1: conduct more extensive missions on the Moon's surface, including using

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Speaker 1: the lunar rover vehicle, So the suit had to have

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Speaker 1: greater flexibility than the older A seven L suits, including

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Speaker 1: additional joints built into the suits to allow astronauts to actually,

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Speaker 1: you know, sit on a rover and putter around on

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Speaker 1: the Moon's surface. It actually kind of makes me think

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Speaker 1: of action figures, like there were different types like g

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Speaker 1: I Joe action figures had joints at the elbow and knee,

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Speaker 1: so you could bend the arms and bend the legs.

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Speaker 1: As opposed to action figures from like the original Star

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Speaker 1: Wars action figures, they had no joints at the elbows

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Speaker 1: or knees, so they had very stiff armed and stiff

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Speaker 1: legged movements. Kind of similar to that. These joints were

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Speaker 1: made out of molded rubber, kind of like a like

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Speaker 1: a bellows almost, and you could find them at the shoulders,

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Speaker 1: the elbows, the hips, and the knees. The p l

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Speaker 1: s s could supply up to seven hours of life

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Speaker 1: support towards the end of the Apollo program, allowing for

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Speaker 1: pretty extensive e v A s. The versions worn inside

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Speaker 1: the spacecraft and the type Warren and sky Lab were

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Speaker 1: not quite as fancy as the lunar versions. NASA chose

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Speaker 1: to go with a design for sky Lab that would

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Speaker 1: require astronaut to actually be tethered to the Skylab facility

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Speaker 1: for life support functions during any sort of e v A,

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Speaker 1: so you had that umbilical back to the spacecraft if

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Speaker 1: you were doing an e v A at sky Lab

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Speaker 1: instead of carrying you know, your own portable life support unit.

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Speaker 1: This necessitated a redesign of the front of the suit

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Speaker 1: in order to accommodate the umbilical tether in a way

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Speaker 1: that wouldn't get in the in the way of the astronaut. Right,

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Speaker 1: so you think about it, if you have a hose

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Speaker 1: connected to your chest, you wanted to be in a

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Speaker 1: spot where it's not going to get in the way

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Speaker 1: of your arms if you have to do intricate work

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Speaker 1: on say a spacecraft. Um, so, yeah, this was a

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Speaker 1: bit of a redesign, and the astronauts would connect the

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Speaker 1: other end of the tether to a life support panel

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Speaker 1: inside the airlock of Skylab before depressurization. And while you

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Speaker 1: could have more than one astronaut go on an e

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Speaker 1: v A at once at sky Lab, typically they would

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Speaker 1: each connect to their own panel as opposed to sharing

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Speaker 1: a panel. The panel had multiple out puts, so you

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Speaker 1: could connect more than one tether to a panel, but

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Speaker 1: generally speaking, that's not how the astronauts operated. The astronauts

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Speaker 1: did have a half hour supply of pure oxygen on

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Speaker 1: their suit, just as an emergency backup if for some

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Speaker 1: reason the life support connection to the spacecraft had failed.

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Speaker 1: The suits had a few other differences from the Apollo versions.

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Speaker 1: For one, they had more zippers to allow for easier

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Speaker 1: dawning and daffing of the suits and zero g uh.

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Speaker 1: That did come at the cost of some mobility, but

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Speaker 1: since the Skylab astronauts wouldn't be going on joy rides

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Speaker 1: on the lunar rover, it didn't matter as much to

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Speaker 1: NASA that they wouldn't be able to, you know, like

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Speaker 1: bend at the waist. They also had fewer layers of

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Speaker 1: thermal protection than the Apollo suits. They were using slightly

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Speaker 1: different materials in a new arrangement that still provided thermal protection,

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Speaker 1: so it's not like they got rid of it, they

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Speaker 1: just found a more efficient way of doing it without

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Speaker 1: needing as many layers of material. There were only three

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Speaker 1: crew as in a cruise people going on them. Skyline

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Speaker 1: missions are only three they had astronauts actually go to

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Speaker 1: sky Lab, with the first one in May nineteen seventy three.

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Speaker 1: The last one happened in November nineteen seventy three to

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Speaker 1: February nineteen seventy four. Nine astronauts would visit the sky

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Speaker 1: Lab Across all three of these missions, divided up between

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Speaker 1: the three. That is, so three astronauts per mission Across

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Speaker 1: these three missions, astronauts spent a total of a hundred

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Speaker 1: seventy one days aboard sky Lab. The longest of the

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Speaker 1: three missions was for eighty four days. The cruise traveled

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Speaker 1: to and from Skylab. As I said, with repurposed Apollo

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Speaker 1: command modules on repurposed launch vehicles that you know, we're

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Speaker 1: meant for the Apollo program. But the Apollo program ended

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Speaker 1: and they still had these, so they're like, well, let's

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Speaker 1: use them, um, and so the Apollo capsule, the command

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Speaker 1: capsule would dock at one end of the sky Lab. Clearly,

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Speaker 1: they didn't have the lunar module, there was no need

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Speaker 1: for that, so that part was not attached to the spacecraft. Interestingly,

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Speaker 1: the living quarters of sky Lab were palatial compared to

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Speaker 1: the Apollo capsule. Astronauts actually, we're using a converted fuel

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Speaker 1: tank of a Saturn S for b rocket stage to

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Speaker 1: act as their living quarters, which meant that they had

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Speaker 1: an internal space of twelve thousand, seven hundred fifty cubic

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Speaker 1: feet or three hundred sixty one cubic meters of space.

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Speaker 1: The Apollo capsule was just two hundred eighteen cubic feet

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Speaker 1: or six point one seven cubic meters, so an enormous difference.

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Speaker 1: I imagine that when it came time to, you know,

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Speaker 1: use the bathroom, it was a lot easier to get

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Speaker 1: some space between you and the other astronauts. After that,

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Speaker 1: the Soviets were the only people sending crews up into

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Speaker 1: space using the Soyuz capsule. In nine, the Soviet Union

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Speaker 1: and America conducted some joint missions, with the Soviets in

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Speaker 1: a Soyuz capsule and the Americans were in the final

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Speaker 1: Apollo capsule and the two spacecraft docked with each other

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Speaker 1: in orbit. The two crews worked together on several experiments

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Speaker 1: before the spacecraft separated and they both returned to Earth safely.

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Speaker 1: So this was the Apollo Soyu's mission, not officially part

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Speaker 1: of the Apollo program, but using the final Apollo capsule,

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Speaker 1: and then the United States kind of hit a dry spell.

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Speaker 1: The Soviets continued to launch Soyu's capsules into space, working

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Speaker 1: on small Soviet space stations under the name Salute, but

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Speaker 1: for the USA the crude missions would be on hold

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Speaker 1: until the Space Shuttle was ready to launch, which had

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Speaker 1: a few delays. It was finally ready in ninety one.

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Speaker 1: NASA had hoped to use the Shuttle to help boost

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Speaker 1: sky Lab into a higher orbit and keep Skylab going.

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Speaker 1: But because of the delays in the Space Shuttle program,

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Speaker 1: that opportunity went away. Uh sky Labs orbit deteriorated, and

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Speaker 1: then it broke apart upon re entering the air's atmosphere

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Speaker 1: in nine so there was no way of prolonging that mission.

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Speaker 1: But now we're getting into the next era of space suits,

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Speaker 1: the Space Shuttle era. When we come back, we'll talk

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Speaker 1: about how those suits worked and what was different from

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Speaker 1: the Apollo era suits. But first let's take this quick break.

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Speaker 1: The Space Shuttle era does not have a single suit

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Speaker 1: that we can point to and say this is what

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Speaker 1: Space Shuttle suits were like. There are actually a few

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Speaker 1: different ones, and of course there's a difference between the

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Speaker 1: suits that were worn inside the Space Shuttle for normal

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Speaker 1: operations as opposed for the stuff like take off and landing,

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Speaker 1: and then the stuff worn for e v A S

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Speaker 1: or extra vehicular activities you know, going out into space.

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Speaker 1: But let's start at the beginning. The first mission, STS one,

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Speaker 1: which launched on April twel had two astronauts wearing suits

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Speaker 1: that were based largely on an Air Force flight suit

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Speaker 1: designated S ten thirty. These were worn by pilots aboard

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Speaker 1: the s R seventy one Blackbird aircraft. That's a long range,

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Speaker 1: high speed, and high altitude reconnaissance vehicle. I've actually talked

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Speaker 1: about the Blackbird in other episodes of tech Stuff. The

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Speaker 1: David Clark Company, long associated with flight and space suits,

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Speaker 1: made the variation for the early Space Shuttle cruise, and

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Speaker 1: this one became known as the S ten thirty A,

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Speaker 1: also known as the Shuttle Ejection Escape Suit. Now, as

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Speaker 1: that name suggests, the suit was intended to protect astronauts

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Speaker 1: in the event of an emergency ejection, and they were

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Speaker 1: rated to protect an astronaut up to an altitude of

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Speaker 1: eighty thousand feet and the speed of mock two point seven,

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Speaker 1: which is a big yalza. So let's talk about that

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Speaker 1: for a second to get our minds wrapped around what

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Speaker 1: this means. So, as you climb in the atmosphere, the

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Speaker 1: air pressure drops, which makes sense, right after all, on

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Speaker 1: the ground, you've got the pressure of all that atmosphere

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Speaker 1: pressing down on you. But as you go higher, you

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Speaker 1: have less atmosphere above you, and so there's less pressure

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Speaker 1: pushing down on you. At eighty thousand feet, the air

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Speaker 1: pressure is point four zero six pounds per square inch.

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Speaker 1: Temperature is a bit fiddly when it comes to altitudes.

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Speaker 1: The temperature drops off as you climb up to a point,

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Speaker 1: but then as you hit the stratosphere, the temperature actually

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Speaker 1: starts to go up as you climb, and then as

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Speaker 1: you get beyond the stratosphere, the temperature plunges again no joke,

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Speaker 1: But at any thousand feet you're looking at temperatures of

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Speaker 1: nearly negative sixty two Fahrenheits, So the suit has to

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Speaker 1: protect against both the low pressure and the low temperature.

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Speaker 1: Now let's talk about mock two point seven. Some folks

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Speaker 1: reduce mock to mean a multiple of the speed of sound,

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Speaker 1: so if you're going mock three, you're going three times

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Speaker 1: the speed of sound, which is only part of the picture,

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Speaker 1: because the actual explanation of mock is more complicated. And

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Speaker 1: part of that is because the nature of the speed

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Speaker 1: of sound is more complicated because sound travels at a

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Speaker 1: speed that's dependent upon the medium through which it travels. So,

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Speaker 1: in other words, sound travels at different speeds at different conditions,

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Speaker 1: and those conditions can include things like temperature, so it

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Speaker 1: will travel at different speed at sea level at standard

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Speaker 1: temperature than it will at eight feet. So mock actually

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Speaker 1: describes the ratio of the flow velocity of some fluid

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Speaker 1: like air compared to the speed of sound through that

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Speaker 1: particular medium. For shorthand, you could say it's like a multiplier.

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Speaker 1: You know, you could say, oh, it's multiplied by the

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Speaker 1: speed of sound. But just know that when you really

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Speaker 1: dig down, it gets a little more complicated than that. Now,

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Speaker 1: your typical commercial aircraft travels at a speed of around

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Speaker 1: mock zero point eight, So mock two point seven is

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Speaker 1: wicked fast. It's kind of like around you know, more

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Speaker 1: than two thousand miles per hour or approximately three thousand,

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Speaker 1: three hundred thirty four kilometers per hour. So the suit

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Speaker 1: needed to protect astronauts against the forces they would encounter

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Speaker 1: should they have to eject at that speed, which is

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Speaker 1: pretty crazy stuff. Now, this version of the Space Shuttle

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Speaker 1: had ejection seats for the pilot and copilot, and as

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Speaker 1: they said, those early Shuttle flights only had two astronauts

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Speaker 1: each to make certain that the shuttle was operating at

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Speaker 1: the expected levels and testing it out to make certain

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Speaker 1: it could go into operational status. Now, keep in mind.

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Speaker 1: The purpose of the Shuttle was to serve as a

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Speaker 1: reusable vehicle that we could take to low Earth orbit

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Speaker 1: and then come back to Earth. So the injector seats

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Speaker 1: and the escape suits or standard issue for STS one

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Speaker 1: through STS four, the first four test missions of the

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Speaker 1: Space Shuttle UH Space Shuttle Columbia. I should add the

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Speaker 1: suits would connect to the shuttle for the purposes of

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Speaker 1: life support. And if you ever look at a photo

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Speaker 1: of an astronaut wearing one of these, you'd say that

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Speaker 1: is non attractive space suit because they kind of look

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Speaker 1: like lumpy potatoes. They weren't designed for use outside the

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Speaker 1: shuttle in space, so they lacked the various layers of

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Speaker 1: thermal protection and teflon coding and whatnot to protect against

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Speaker 1: like micro meteoroids and the extremes of temperature that you

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Speaker 1: would find in outer space. There would be no need

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Speaker 1: to worry about that stuff until a bit later with

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Speaker 1: the first Shuttle based e v A s. The pressure

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Speaker 1: suits did have bladders in the legs, so they were

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Speaker 1: partially pressurized. They're pressurized in the lower body, and again

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Speaker 1: this was to provide the pressure needed to keep blood

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Speaker 1: from pooling in the lower extremities during times of extreme acceleration.

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Speaker 1: So this helps protect against blackouts. Right, if all your

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Speaker 1: blood starts rushing to the lower part of your your body,

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Speaker 1: then there's not enough in your brain to keep you,

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Speaker 1: you know, conscious. So this pressure helped prevent against that.

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Speaker 1: It helped kind of put enough pressure on the lower

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Speaker 1: limbs so that blood couldn't pool down in the lower body.

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Speaker 1: I talked about it a bit in our previous episodes.

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Speaker 1: After the first four test flight missions of the Space Shuttle,

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Speaker 1: NASA made a few changes, and for one thing, they

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Speaker 1: got rid of the ejection seats in the Shuttle, which

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Speaker 1: meant that the suits really weren't a fit anymore either,

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Speaker 1: because the whole reason to have the suits was as

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Speaker 1: a protective outfit in the event of having to eject

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Speaker 1: out of the Shuttle, so they got rid of them

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Speaker 1: starting with STS five, the fifth flight of the Space

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Speaker 1: Shuttle Columbia and the first operational flight, meaning the first

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Speaker 1: to actually be considered more than a test flight. This

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Speaker 1: was one that was delivering a payload to outer space.

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Speaker 1: The cruise on that vessel didn't wear pressurized suits during

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Speaker 1: takeoff and landing or launch and re entry. Slash landing.

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Speaker 1: They had simple flight suit. They were blue in color,

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Speaker 1: They weren't pressurized. They did have helmets to protect their

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Speaker 1: noggins for launch and re entry and landing, but they

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Speaker 1: weren't wearing any sort of pressurized suit with life support.

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Speaker 1: NASA was sort of following the old Soviet model, which

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Speaker 1: for many years did not have cosmonauts wearing pressurized suits

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Speaker 1: until there was this tragic decompression accident that changed things.

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Speaker 1: As it turns out, a similar tragedy would change NASA's

434
00:25:24,119 --> 00:25:27,920
Speaker 1: approach a few years later. Now, I don't really have

435
00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:30,159
Speaker 1: much to say about the blue flight suits because they

436
00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:32,880
Speaker 1: didn't really represent a lot of tech, and really they

437
00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:35,680
Speaker 1: showed that NASA had a high level of confidence in

438
00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:39,160
Speaker 1: the safety and operation of the Shuttle. But I can

439
00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:43,000
Speaker 1: talk about the new extra vehicular Activity or e v

440
00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:47,040
Speaker 1: A space suits. NASA planned to have two astronauts go

441
00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:51,200
Speaker 1: on a spacewalk during STS five, but some health issues

442
00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:54,240
Speaker 1: delayed that, and then a technical error in one of

443
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:58,560
Speaker 1: the suits put those plans on ice until STS six,

444
00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:01,919
Speaker 1: the sixth mission that would end up being the maiden

445
00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:05,119
Speaker 1: flight of the Shuttle Challenger. And yeah, both Columbia and

446
00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:09,960
Speaker 1: Challenger have tragic ends, but STS six was a success,

447
00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:13,159
Speaker 1: and during that mission, astronauts put the new extra vehicular

448
00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:17,040
Speaker 1: Mobility Unit or EMU to the test. Let's talk about those.

449
00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:20,720
Speaker 1: So one big change with the e m U or

450
00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:26,880
Speaker 1: EMU was what was worn underneath it, specifically the mag

451
00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:33,040
Speaker 1: or MG that stands for maximum absorbancy garment. And if

452
00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:36,399
Speaker 1: you think that sounds like a diaper, it depends. Now

453
00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:39,280
Speaker 1: you're on the right track. Gone were the days of

454
00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:43,720
Speaker 1: the urine collection devices because those were meant to work

455
00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:47,440
Speaker 1: with male astronauts and the space program had finally evolved

456
00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:54,240
Speaker 1: beyond being a men only endeavor. After this, you know garment,

457
00:26:54,359 --> 00:26:57,280
Speaker 1: you would slide on a one piece thermal garment called

458
00:26:57,320 --> 00:27:01,080
Speaker 1: the Thermal Control undergarment. It's kind like a body suit

459
00:27:01,280 --> 00:27:04,879
Speaker 1: or long John's. And then came the Liquid Cooling and

460
00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:08,480
Speaker 1: Ventilation Garment or l c VG, similar to the one

461
00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:11,560
Speaker 1: that was worn by Apollo astronauts. This is the thing

462
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:14,960
Speaker 1: that allows cool water to run through tubes that are

463
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:18,200
Speaker 1: against the garment and help, you know, maintain a good

464
00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:21,840
Speaker 1: body temperature for the astronaut. The suit had a few

465
00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:25,600
Speaker 1: other pieces to it. The two big ones were the

466
00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:29,600
Speaker 1: lower torso assembly or l t A, and then you

467
00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:33,919
Speaker 1: had the hard upper torso or h U T hut

468
00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:38,200
Speaker 1: so as the name implies, the hard upper torso. First

469
00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:39,800
Speaker 1: of all, it was for the upper torso so like

470
00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:43,280
Speaker 1: the chest and shoulders and stomach even and it had

471
00:27:43,320 --> 00:27:46,960
Speaker 1: a rigid body structure made out of fiberglass which could

472
00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:49,040
Speaker 1: hold in the pressure of the suit and not have

473
00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:52,240
Speaker 1: it balloon outward. So instead of using like a tough,

474
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:57,439
Speaker 1: tight material to restrain ballooning, this was just a you know,

475
00:27:57,520 --> 00:28:01,879
Speaker 1: a hard material. It didn't flex in all. UH the

476
00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:04,640
Speaker 1: arms of the suit, the helmet, and the lower torso

477
00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:08,320
Speaker 1: assembly all would connect to the h UT, as did

478
00:28:08,359 --> 00:28:13,119
Speaker 1: the p l SS UH, the primary life support system

479
00:28:13,119 --> 00:28:16,760
Speaker 1: officially known as that now, and the display controls module

480
00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:19,160
Speaker 1: would also mount on the front. This is the sort

481
00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:25,119
Speaker 1: of Darth Vader looking collection of UH indicators and and controls. Also,

482
00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:28,400
Speaker 1: the HUT would hold a bag filled with drinkable liquid

483
00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:30,720
Speaker 1: with a straw that would extend up to the helmet

484
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:33,639
Speaker 1: of the astronaut, because even in space it's important to

485
00:28:33,640 --> 00:28:39,920
Speaker 1: stay hydrated. Ultimately, NASA only produced three sizes of the HUT,

486
00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:43,960
Speaker 1: which meant, in turn that the organization had a limited

487
00:28:44,040 --> 00:28:46,560
Speaker 1: number of choices when it came to which astronauts would

488
00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:48,240
Speaker 1: be able to go on e v A s, because

489
00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:51,120
Speaker 1: the suit was not a one size fits all kind

490
00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:54,360
Speaker 1: of deal, nor was NASA planning on custom building a

491
00:28:54,400 --> 00:28:58,800
Speaker 1: suit for every astronaut. The exterior of the EMU is

492
00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:02,000
Speaker 1: bright white, part to reflect heat and partly so that

493
00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:05,600
Speaker 1: the astronaut is extremely visible against the blackness of space.

494
00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:09,760
Speaker 1: And in total, the suit has fourteen layers, from the

495
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:13,680
Speaker 1: liquid cooling layers are closest to the astronaut skin, to

496
00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:17,760
Speaker 1: a pressure suit layer, to a restraint layer to keep

497
00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:21,200
Speaker 1: that pressure in check, to a neopreen layer to hold

498
00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:24,920
Speaker 1: everything in, to seven layers of micro meteoroid and thermal

499
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:30,840
Speaker 1: protective material, and an outer layer of kevlar nomes and gortex. Alright,

500
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:34,000
Speaker 1: so an astronaut going on a n e v A

501
00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:38,640
Speaker 1: would first put on their you know there under suit,

502
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:40,680
Speaker 1: but then they would put on the l t A

503
00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:44,240
Speaker 1: the lower half of this suit, the leggings and boots

504
00:29:44,280 --> 00:29:46,760
Speaker 1: and you know stuff that comes up to the hips essentially,

505
00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:49,920
Speaker 1: and this half is the soft half. It's the pliable

506
00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:53,239
Speaker 1: half at least when it's not pressurized. And then they

507
00:29:53,240 --> 00:29:56,960
Speaker 1: would put on the hut, the upper half and seal

508
00:29:57,240 --> 00:29:59,840
Speaker 1: those two together. They lock in together and have a

509
00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:02,920
Speaker 1: ceiling layer that was used necessary obviously you want to

510
00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:06,520
Speaker 1: keep a seal airtight. Then they would put on their

511
00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:09,440
Speaker 1: snoopy cap. This is a close fitting head covering that

512
00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:13,080
Speaker 1: incorporates speakers and a microphone that allows for communications with others.

513
00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:16,760
Speaker 1: Then they would seal on the gloves and helmet. Then

514
00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:20,040
Speaker 1: the suit would pressure eye, the p L S S

515
00:30:20,080 --> 00:30:22,560
Speaker 1: would activate, and then you would have your astronaut ready

516
00:30:22,560 --> 00:30:25,760
Speaker 1: to go. Not only took around fifteen minutes to get

517
00:30:25,800 --> 00:30:28,640
Speaker 1: into or out of the suit from beginning to end,

518
00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:30,880
Speaker 1: but the process of going on an e V A

519
00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:33,960
Speaker 1: would require a lot more prep work than just getting

520
00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:36,520
Speaker 1: into gear. Like you had the whole pre breathe exercise

521
00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:39,840
Speaker 1: you had to do too, alright, So connecting the p

522
00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:43,480
Speaker 1: L S S to the suit, there was another element

523
00:30:43,600 --> 00:30:46,040
Speaker 1: on the e M you called the electrical harness or

524
00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:49,720
Speaker 1: e e H or EMU electrical harness. This was worn

525
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:52,120
Speaker 1: inside the suit, but with connections to link the p

526
00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:55,160
Speaker 1: L S S to the stuit itself, so all the

527
00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:59,680
Speaker 1: systems would be interconnected. The helmet had various visors to

528
00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:03,560
Speaker 1: protect against stuff like sunlight. It also had mounted headlamps

529
00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:06,960
Speaker 1: and could accommodate a TV camera transmitter as well, so

530
00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:10,160
Speaker 1: that you could get that glorious first person astronaut view.

531
00:31:10,960 --> 00:31:13,560
Speaker 1: While the David Clark Company made the pressurized suits for

532
00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:15,960
Speaker 1: the early test flights of the Space Shuttle, the e

533
00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:19,320
Speaker 1: m U was the product of two other companies. One

534
00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:22,600
Speaker 1: was Hamilton's Standard and the other was I L C. Dover.

535
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:25,080
Speaker 1: And while the first real use of the e MU

536
00:31:25,280 --> 00:31:28,880
Speaker 1: was aboard the STS six after the failed attempt on

537
00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:32,760
Speaker 1: STS five, I should also add that they actually had

538
00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:36,000
Speaker 1: one of these suits on STS four during one of

539
00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:40,680
Speaker 1: the test flights, and they practiced the process of putting

540
00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:43,040
Speaker 1: the suit on and taking it off in zero G

541
00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:45,880
Speaker 1: to make sure that there weren't any other issues that

542
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:48,120
Speaker 1: need to be worked out. They didn't take it on

543
00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:49,840
Speaker 1: a n E v A, they didn't leave the shuttle,

544
00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:52,440
Speaker 1: but they did practice getting into and out of it.

545
00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:56,400
Speaker 1: The e MU design would evolve a little bit over

546
00:31:56,400 --> 00:31:58,440
Speaker 1: the years, but to this day there are still e

547
00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:01,480
Speaker 1: m U s aboard the Internet Space Station. And when

548
00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:03,800
Speaker 1: you think about that, like how old these things are,

549
00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:07,800
Speaker 1: that's something right. The ones they're actually have a little

550
00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:10,520
Speaker 1: bit more of a modular design, which gives astronauts the

551
00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:14,160
Speaker 1: ability to change the fitting slightly, which helps them accommodate

552
00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:17,280
Speaker 1: different body sizes and types. At least to an extent,

553
00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:20,800
Speaker 1: the hut still kind of limits things a bit in

554
00:32:20,840 --> 00:32:24,239
Speaker 1: that regard. I should also mention that these things are

555
00:32:24,240 --> 00:32:26,280
Speaker 1: pretty heavy, at least back here on Earth. They're heavy

556
00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:28,200
Speaker 1: in space. You don't really have to worry about it. Wait,

557
00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:29,880
Speaker 1: it's not so much a thing you gotta worry when

558
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:32,720
Speaker 1: you're in, you know, a microgravity environment. But if you

559
00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:35,720
Speaker 1: were to suit up down here, you probably wouldn't be

560
00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:38,360
Speaker 1: going on any sprints or anything like that. That's because

561
00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:41,000
Speaker 1: the Shuttle version of the e v A weighed in

562
00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:46,640
Speaker 1: and around two pounds, around a little less than a hundreds,

563
00:32:47,160 --> 00:32:49,880
Speaker 1: and the version that would be worn aboard the I

564
00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:53,280
Speaker 1: S S was even heftier. That was three nineteen pounds

565
00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:57,200
Speaker 1: or around a hundred. One other thing I want to

566
00:32:57,240 --> 00:32:59,800
Speaker 1: cover before we go to break is the m m

567
00:33:00,040 --> 00:33:04,200
Speaker 1: YOU or manned maneuvering unit. This was a propulsion unit

568
00:33:04,520 --> 00:33:07,560
Speaker 1: that fit over the life support system that you wore

569
00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:10,120
Speaker 1: on your back when you were in an e m U.

570
00:33:10,320 --> 00:33:12,760
Speaker 1: This was kind of like a jet pack for space,

571
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:17,720
Speaker 1: although not using you know, thrusters with ignited fuel instead

572
00:33:17,840 --> 00:33:22,040
Speaker 1: using nitrogen gas as a propellant. And there were twenty

573
00:33:22,120 --> 00:33:24,800
Speaker 1: four nozzles on the m m U, so you could

574
00:33:25,280 --> 00:33:28,680
Speaker 1: use the combination of nozzles to kind of maneuver your

575
00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:31,760
Speaker 1: way and float through space with this backpack and not

576
00:33:31,960 --> 00:33:35,800
Speaker 1: have any other connection to the spacecraft, like no teather,

577
00:33:36,320 --> 00:33:39,600
Speaker 1: just floating around out there. Uh. You would use a

578
00:33:39,640 --> 00:33:43,200
Speaker 1: hand controls on the MMU to kind of guide where

579
00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:46,960
Speaker 1: you wanted to go. Bruce McCandless did this Ino, and

580
00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:49,800
Speaker 1: there's a famous photo of him looking back at the

581
00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:52,720
Speaker 1: Shuttle with nothing connecting him to the spacecraft as he

582
00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:55,640
Speaker 1: just floats above the Earth. And if I think about

583
00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:57,920
Speaker 1: it too much while I'm looking at that picture, I

584
00:33:57,960 --> 00:34:02,240
Speaker 1: actually start to feel anxiety. Is an incredible photo. The

585
00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:05,880
Speaker 1: MMU was used on only three missions before NASA retired it,

586
00:34:06,280 --> 00:34:10,279
Speaker 1: and the reason the agency sunseted the MMU was the

587
00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:13,120
Speaker 1: same reason that the Blue jumpsuit era would come to

588
00:34:13,160 --> 00:34:16,720
Speaker 1: an end. It would be a disaster that would change everything,

589
00:34:17,320 --> 00:34:28,160
Speaker 1: but we'll talk about that after this quick break. On

590
00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:33,919
Speaker 1: January nine, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart seventy three

591
00:34:33,960 --> 00:34:39,640
Speaker 1: seconds after launch, killing all aboard This was one of

592
00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:44,360
Speaker 1: those big defining moments in history, history in general, not

593
00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:48,160
Speaker 1: just the space industry. For one thing, as a launch,

594
00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:52,439
Speaker 1: multiple news outlets were covering the story live in real time,

595
00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:57,320
Speaker 1: and so the world saw this explosion happen. For another,

596
00:34:57,440 --> 00:35:01,160
Speaker 1: NASA had really promoted this mission heavily, part because a

597
00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:05,000
Speaker 1: high school teacher, Krista, she was part of the crew

598
00:35:05,040 --> 00:35:06,800
Speaker 1: and she would have been the first teacher in space.

599
00:35:07,239 --> 00:35:10,000
Speaker 1: And for that reason, it was something a lot of

600
00:35:10,040 --> 00:35:14,319
Speaker 1: schools were showing live on on televisions. In the whole

601
00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:18,920
Speaker 1: generation of school kids were exposed to this tragic disaster

602
00:35:19,040 --> 00:35:21,880
Speaker 1: in real time. And I mean I was one of them.

603
00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:25,480
Speaker 1: I was ten when it happened. I could do a

604
00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:30,680
Speaker 1: full episode about that mission and what happened as a

605
00:35:30,760 --> 00:35:35,040
Speaker 1: result of that disaster, But for our purposes, let's just

606
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:38,960
Speaker 1: stick to the suits. NASA grounded the Space Shuttle program

607
00:35:39,120 --> 00:35:43,000
Speaker 1: and conducted a full investigation and evaluation of the program.

608
00:35:43,040 --> 00:35:46,200
Speaker 1: No Space Shuttle missions flew for two years and eight months,

609
00:35:46,719 --> 00:35:50,680
Speaker 1: and when the program returned, so did pressurized flight suits.

610
00:35:51,719 --> 00:35:54,440
Speaker 1: Astronauts had to wear these suits for launch and for

611
00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:57,200
Speaker 1: re entry and landing, so once again they had to

612
00:35:57,239 --> 00:36:01,400
Speaker 1: wear a specific suit for those moments in a mission.

613
00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:06,040
Speaker 1: They were officially called the launch entry suit. These new

614
00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:09,359
Speaker 1: suits would get the nickname pumpkin suits because they were

615
00:36:09,640 --> 00:36:13,160
Speaker 1: bright orange in color, and the thinking was that in

616
00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:18,040
Speaker 1: an emergency evacuation, they would likely be over water and

617
00:36:18,120 --> 00:36:20,720
Speaker 1: the bright orange color would make the suits really easy

618
00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:25,400
Speaker 1: to spot against the ocean. The suits had partial pressurization,

619
00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:28,520
Speaker 1: they were not fully pressurized, so again around the legs

620
00:36:28,719 --> 00:36:35,040
Speaker 1: to prevent blackouts. So similar to the ejection suits that

621
00:36:35,080 --> 00:36:37,520
Speaker 1: were worn in the test flights of the Space Shell

622
00:36:37,719 --> 00:36:40,759
Speaker 1: for Sts one through four, the gloves for the suits

623
00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:43,440
Speaker 1: would actually just zipper onto the suits themselves. They did

624
00:36:43,520 --> 00:36:47,600
Speaker 1: not have like the ring locking mechanism that other suits did.

625
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:51,719
Speaker 1: They came with a helmet with a polycarbonate face plate

626
00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:54,239
Speaker 1: that could seal onto the neck of the suit. The

627
00:36:54,280 --> 00:36:57,759
Speaker 1: astronauts also wore heavy duty boots in addition to the suit,

628
00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:00,719
Speaker 1: and they had a survival backpack which included stuff like

629
00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:04,000
Speaker 1: a parachute and a life raft, among some other things.

630
00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:07,360
Speaker 1: As space suits go, this one kind of sat between

631
00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:10,719
Speaker 1: the emergency ejection suits of the early Shuttle tests and

632
00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:14,520
Speaker 1: the jumpsuit that astronauts wore up to the Challenger disaster.

633
00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:18,480
Speaker 1: They were kind of smacked out in the middle. These

634
00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:21,040
Speaker 1: suits remained in use until the mid nineties, when NASA

635
00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:24,239
Speaker 1: would replace them with the Advanced Crew Escape Suit or

636
00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:28,400
Speaker 1: ACES a c S. These are also called pumpkin suits

637
00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:31,680
Speaker 1: they also because they're bright orange, but they are puffier

638
00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:35,040
Speaker 1: than the ELIS suits that came before them, so unlike

639
00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:38,440
Speaker 1: the l E S the ACES suits for the later

640
00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:42,200
Speaker 1: spatial era, they were in our full pressure suits. They

641
00:37:42,200 --> 00:37:46,759
Speaker 1: aren't just partially pressurized, so rather than having zippered connections

642
00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:49,680
Speaker 1: for the gloves, the gloves lock on through lock rings,

643
00:37:49,800 --> 00:37:53,120
Speaker 1: much like E m U suits do. They also include

644
00:37:53,160 --> 00:37:56,040
Speaker 1: a liquid cooling mechanism to help with body temperature, so

645
00:37:56,040 --> 00:37:58,719
Speaker 1: we're back to that as well, and the ACES suit

646
00:37:58,880 --> 00:38:01,759
Speaker 1: has a detachable helmet and also comes complete with a

647
00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:05,319
Speaker 1: survival backpack, similar to the l E S. Like the

648
00:38:05,440 --> 00:38:08,440
Speaker 1: l E S, astronauts would wear the ACES suit during

649
00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:11,440
Speaker 1: launch and re entry and landing. It's very similar to

650
00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:14,880
Speaker 1: the so Cool suits that the Russians use. Uh the

651
00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:19,520
Speaker 1: Russians suit helmet is permanently attached to the suit, and

652
00:38:19,600 --> 00:38:22,600
Speaker 1: there's no backpack on the so called suits because there's

653
00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:25,359
Speaker 1: not enough room in a Soyuz capsule to handle one.

654
00:38:25,840 --> 00:38:28,439
Speaker 1: But these are the suits that have been in use

655
00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:31,359
Speaker 1: long after the Shuttle program has come to an end.

656
00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:35,160
Speaker 1: And now let's talk a little bit about some planned suits,

657
00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:39,239
Speaker 1: including a couple that never entered into service. One of

658
00:38:39,280 --> 00:38:43,080
Speaker 1: those was the Constellation space suits. I shouldn't say one

659
00:38:43,160 --> 00:38:46,120
Speaker 1: two of them were Constellation space suits because there were

660
00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:49,799
Speaker 1: two different versions. So the Constellation project was meant to

661
00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:52,319
Speaker 1: pick up where the Space Shuttle was leaving off, with

662
00:38:52,360 --> 00:38:56,120
Speaker 1: the idea being that the new spacecraft would take astronauts

663
00:38:56,120 --> 00:38:59,200
Speaker 1: to and from the International Space Station and ultimately to

664
00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:02,759
Speaker 1: the Moon, hopefully by twenty twenty. This would be the

665
00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:06,360
Speaker 1: Orion spacecraft. And if you are paying attention, you know

666
00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:08,920
Speaker 1: that came and went and no one was going to

667
00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:13,840
Speaker 1: the moon. Well, the Constellation program ultimately got the acts

668
00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:16,840
Speaker 1: after a full review of the program revealed that it

669
00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:21,560
Speaker 1: would be unsuccessful without a substantial increase in the budget.

670
00:39:22,160 --> 00:39:25,160
Speaker 1: But had it gone ahead, we would have seen a

671
00:39:25,200 --> 00:39:27,359
Speaker 1: new type of space suit meant to be worn both

672
00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:31,239
Speaker 1: during critical maneuvers such as during launch and reentry, as

673
00:39:31,280 --> 00:39:33,520
Speaker 1: well as for e v A s. So, in other words,

674
00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:37,600
Speaker 1: astronauts would have an indoor outdoor space suit, and there

675
00:39:37,600 --> 00:39:42,080
Speaker 1: were two planned configurations of this suit. Configuration one would

676
00:39:42,120 --> 00:39:45,279
Speaker 1: have covered most missions with a full pressure suit that

677
00:39:45,360 --> 00:39:49,800
Speaker 1: included a closed loop environmental system allowing for operation in space,

678
00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:52,440
Speaker 1: and like some of the older suits I've talked about,

679
00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:55,400
Speaker 1: this one would connect to the Orion spacecraft's life support

680
00:39:55,400 --> 00:39:59,239
Speaker 1: system through an umbilical tether rather than incorporating its own

681
00:39:59,280 --> 00:40:03,359
Speaker 1: p L s US. The second configuration was planned for

682
00:40:03,560 --> 00:40:06,040
Speaker 1: lunar missions. This was more of a heavy duty one.

683
00:40:06,440 --> 00:40:10,400
Speaker 1: The suit would make use of the same arms, legs, boots, helmet,

684
00:40:10,440 --> 00:40:14,000
Speaker 1: and gloves as Configuration one's suit, but to have a

685
00:40:14,040 --> 00:40:17,520
Speaker 1: different torso section. It would also allow for higher pressure

686
00:40:17,560 --> 00:40:20,200
Speaker 1: within the suit, something that could head off issues like

687
00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:23,920
Speaker 1: decompression sickness, which I mentioned about earlier, the bends, that

688
00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:28,000
Speaker 1: kind of thing. While the US discontinued the Constellation program

689
00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:31,839
Speaker 1: in two, NASA continued to develop the Constellation space suit,

690
00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:36,719
Speaker 1: but simultaneously, a different department within NASA was working on

691
00:40:37,040 --> 00:40:40,760
Speaker 1: the Advanced Space Suit project. So you had two different

692
00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:43,279
Speaker 1: space suit programs working at the same time. Let's talk

693
00:40:43,320 --> 00:40:46,920
Speaker 1: about this Advanced Space Suit Project one. The initiative developed

694
00:40:46,960 --> 00:40:49,879
Speaker 1: two designs for e v A suits. The Z one

695
00:40:50,120 --> 00:40:53,200
Speaker 1: and the Z two. The Z one uses a soft

696
00:40:53,280 --> 00:40:56,680
Speaker 1: suit approach, meaning you know, it's mostly pliable when it's

697
00:40:56,680 --> 00:41:00,960
Speaker 1: not pressurized. It has some hard components, but it's mostly fabric.

698
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:05,000
Speaker 1: Has a large dome shaped helmet attached to the suit.

699
00:41:05,160 --> 00:41:08,280
Speaker 1: Kind of looks like buzz Lightyear. In fact, the white

700
00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:10,759
Speaker 1: suit has like some green lines on it and all

701
00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:13,319
Speaker 1: the pictures of it, so it really does look like

702
00:41:13,320 --> 00:41:16,760
Speaker 1: a buzz light ear suit. And it splits into upper

703
00:41:16,840 --> 00:41:20,600
Speaker 1: and lower torso segments as well as having assembly mechanisms

704
00:41:20,680 --> 00:41:23,840
Speaker 1: for gloves and boots to attach to the suit. The

705
00:41:23,960 --> 00:41:27,480
Speaker 1: Z two has a hard upper torso rather than a

706
00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:29,319
Speaker 1: soft one, so it's similar to the E m U

707
00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:32,239
Speaker 1: suit I mentioned earlier. In addition to the Z one

708
00:41:32,280 --> 00:41:36,280
Speaker 1: and Z two, the projects spawned an updated p l SS.

709
00:41:36,280 --> 00:41:39,000
Speaker 1: This one was called the Next Generation Life Support where

710
00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:42,080
Speaker 1: in g l S complete with an improved method for

711
00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:46,520
Speaker 1: removing carbon dioxide phone the suit's air supply. In sixteen,

712
00:41:46,560 --> 00:41:49,359
Speaker 1: NASA made the decision to combine the information that had

713
00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:52,480
Speaker 1: been learned from the Constellation project as well as the

714
00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:55,759
Speaker 1: Advanced Space Suit Project and create a new one kind

715
00:41:55,800 --> 00:41:59,600
Speaker 1: of like Vultron. All this joining together to find the

716
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:03,640
Speaker 1: x e m U project ZIMU, I guess or x

717
00:42:03,719 --> 00:42:07,960
Speaker 1: AMU if you prefer uh. This is the specific project

718
00:42:08,120 --> 00:42:11,440
Speaker 1: that the audit found to be behind schedule, to the

719
00:42:11,480 --> 00:42:14,480
Speaker 1: point that the Artemis programming, which we were supposed to

720
00:42:14,520 --> 00:42:17,160
Speaker 1: go back to the Moon by twenty four is not

721
00:42:17,239 --> 00:42:20,680
Speaker 1: going to happen at least not on that timetable. In fact,

722
00:42:20,680 --> 00:42:23,400
Speaker 1: according to the report, these suits will not be ready

723
00:42:23,520 --> 00:42:28,439
Speaker 1: until April at the earliest. That's if everything goes right.

724
00:42:28,880 --> 00:42:31,440
Speaker 1: The report on those suits is available online and it

725
00:42:31,600 --> 00:42:35,240
Speaker 1: is heck and thorough, y'all. In that report, we learned

726
00:42:35,280 --> 00:42:38,680
Speaker 1: that the Constellation suit program cost a hundred thirty five

727
00:42:38,719 --> 00:42:41,440
Speaker 1: points seven million bucks before it came to an end,

728
00:42:41,600 --> 00:42:45,120
Speaker 1: the Advanced Space Suit pro project that costs another fifty

729
00:42:45,160 --> 00:42:49,080
Speaker 1: one point six million dollars, and the x EMU has

730
00:42:49,160 --> 00:42:52,359
Speaker 1: cost so far around two hundred thirty two point eight

731
00:42:52,360 --> 00:42:55,160
Speaker 1: million dollars. I did the math, and that means that

732
00:42:55,280 --> 00:42:59,320
Speaker 1: NASA has spent more than four hundred twenty million dollars

733
00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:02,800
Speaker 1: on the next generation of space suits already four twenty

734
00:43:02,920 --> 00:43:06,880
Speaker 1: NASA is just blazing through that cash, and according to

735
00:43:06,880 --> 00:43:10,279
Speaker 1: the report, it's not even halfway to what will ultimately

736
00:43:10,320 --> 00:43:13,560
Speaker 1: get spent on these suits before they are fully built,

737
00:43:13,680 --> 00:43:18,200
Speaker 1: tested and deployed. Yeza. Still, when you're talking about keeping

738
00:43:18,200 --> 00:43:22,759
Speaker 1: people alive in space, it's obviously it's gonna cost a

739
00:43:22,760 --> 00:43:27,160
Speaker 1: lot of money. But what happened, well, that's complicated. So

740
00:43:27,239 --> 00:43:30,200
Speaker 1: one bit is that there are multiple offices or departments

741
00:43:30,280 --> 00:43:33,680
Speaker 1: within NASA responsible for space suit development. They aren't always

742
00:43:33,680 --> 00:43:36,319
Speaker 1: working on the same projects or with each other, so

743
00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:39,360
Speaker 1: you've got a lot of overlap. Potentially you've got a

744
00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:44,280
Speaker 1: lot of potential wasted effort because it's not a unified approach.

745
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:47,440
Speaker 1: This doesn't mean that it's always a bad thing, because

746
00:43:47,560 --> 00:43:49,840
Speaker 1: you can often get really good ideas coming out of

747
00:43:49,840 --> 00:43:52,640
Speaker 1: totally different groups that would would have died on the

748
00:43:52,760 --> 00:43:55,880
Speaker 1: vine if it had been a unified project. But it

749
00:43:55,880 --> 00:43:59,239
Speaker 1: does make it more complicated. So like this is like

750
00:43:59,280 --> 00:44:02,280
Speaker 1: when NASA side that the Constellation program and the Advanced

751
00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:05,279
Speaker 1: Space Suit program needed to kind of combine into each other.

752
00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:09,160
Speaker 1: For another. As I mentioned before, NASA is an organization

753
00:44:09,160 --> 00:44:12,719
Speaker 1: that sees a lot of changes every year. For one thing,

754
00:44:13,200 --> 00:44:17,600
Speaker 1: there's always a political battle over NASA's funding. Any agency

755
00:44:17,640 --> 00:44:20,920
Speaker 1: that's dependent upon federal funds is going to find it

756
00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:24,160
Speaker 1: hard to stay on track because support can fluctuate from

757
00:44:24,239 --> 00:44:26,319
Speaker 1: year to year. You might get a year where you

758
00:44:26,400 --> 00:44:29,160
Speaker 1: get more financial support and another year where no one

759
00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:32,279
Speaker 1: is really supporting you, and that makes it really hard

760
00:44:32,320 --> 00:44:35,680
Speaker 1: to stay on task with projects. For another, the head

761
00:44:35,680 --> 00:44:38,799
Speaker 1: of NASA gets their position courtesy of whomever happens to

762
00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:43,600
Speaker 1: be president, so that means leadership and NASA changes fairly regularly,

763
00:44:43,719 --> 00:44:46,600
Speaker 1: and that can mean projects that were in progress might

764
00:44:46,719 --> 00:44:49,080
Speaker 1: end up being put on the back shelf or even

765
00:44:49,120 --> 00:44:52,399
Speaker 1: getting the acts. NASA, I want to add, is an

766
00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:57,480
Speaker 1: incredible agency. There are countless people devoted to the pursuit

767
00:44:57,560 --> 00:45:01,160
Speaker 1: of science and knowledge who are working there. They are innovating,

768
00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:06,120
Speaker 1: they're solving problems that are really spectacular problems. But they

769
00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:09,080
Speaker 1: also have to work in a system that isn't always

770
00:45:09,640 --> 00:45:14,960
Speaker 1: dependable or stable. Right like, things change, priorities change, leadership changes,

771
00:45:15,280 --> 00:45:18,120
Speaker 1: and this sometimes means that something that was in development

772
00:45:18,640 --> 00:45:23,319
Speaker 1: gets taken off development. And when you add to that

773
00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:27,080
Speaker 1: the normal challenges of just trying to create technology with

774
00:45:27,120 --> 00:45:30,080
Speaker 1: all the designing and testing and then the redesigning and

775
00:45:30,120 --> 00:45:33,840
Speaker 1: rebuilding and retesting and all of that effort, particularly for

776
00:45:33,880 --> 00:45:36,560
Speaker 1: technology that's meant to help keep people alive in an

777
00:45:36,600 --> 00:45:39,879
Speaker 1: environment that is trying to kill you, and you can

778
00:45:39,920 --> 00:45:43,160
Speaker 1: see why there are issues. My hope is that we

779
00:45:43,200 --> 00:45:46,239
Speaker 1: will see the x E m U suits emerge. We

780
00:45:46,320 --> 00:45:49,359
Speaker 1: need them, the I S S needs them, and there

781
00:45:49,360 --> 00:45:52,040
Speaker 1: are some cool things that they're supposed to incorporate. Now.

782
00:45:52,080 --> 00:45:54,840
Speaker 1: I'm holding off on going into detail about all that because,

783
00:45:55,160 --> 00:45:58,560
Speaker 1: as we've seen, sometimes stuff that we plan for just

784
00:45:58,640 --> 00:46:01,680
Speaker 1: doesn't pan out, like a feature that was considered to

785
00:46:01,680 --> 00:46:04,640
Speaker 1: be critical ends up getting cut. So I don't want

786
00:46:04,680 --> 00:46:06,680
Speaker 1: to cover all the things that are planned for it.

787
00:46:06,719 --> 00:46:09,520
Speaker 1: I want to wait to see what happens. But believe me,

788
00:46:10,040 --> 00:46:11,719
Speaker 1: if we get to a point where we've got a

789
00:46:11,800 --> 00:46:14,680
Speaker 1: working x E m U suit ready to go into service,

790
00:46:15,040 --> 00:46:16,879
Speaker 1: I will come back to this topic and we will

791
00:46:16,920 --> 00:46:19,960
Speaker 1: do a full episode on it, and that ends our

792
00:46:20,040 --> 00:46:23,040
Speaker 1: journey about the evolution of space suits. So far, I

793
00:46:23,040 --> 00:46:25,839
Speaker 1: didn't really cover the private space suits sector. I might

794
00:46:25,880 --> 00:46:28,720
Speaker 1: do that in a future episode at some point. Um

795
00:46:28,760 --> 00:46:31,040
Speaker 1: It's one that I have mixed feelings about because I

796
00:46:31,120 --> 00:46:37,000
Speaker 1: often feel that people like Elon musk Um dismiss how

797
00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:40,920
Speaker 1: hard this is to do safely and properly. But on

798
00:46:40,960 --> 00:46:43,160
Speaker 1: the other hand, there is something to be said about

799
00:46:43,239 --> 00:46:47,399
Speaker 1: having the entire process under the control of a single company.

800
00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:51,000
Speaker 1: So there are advantages to the private space approach that

801
00:46:51,560 --> 00:46:55,239
Speaker 1: a federally funded agency like NASA cannot take advantage of.

802
00:46:55,800 --> 00:46:59,480
Speaker 1: That that much is true. I just don't know that

803
00:46:59,600 --> 00:47:02,799
Speaker 1: musk boasting that he could get it done through SpaceX

804
00:47:02,840 --> 00:47:05,960
Speaker 1: and take care of NASA's space suit problem is really

805
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:10,239
Speaker 1: that accurate. But who am I to say maybe they'll

806
00:47:10,280 --> 00:47:12,840
Speaker 1: be able to do it. We'll have to wait and see,

807
00:47:13,120 --> 00:47:15,960
Speaker 1: and that's it. If you have suggestions for topics I

808
00:47:15,960 --> 00:47:18,799
Speaker 1: should cover on future episodes of tech Stuff, whether it's

809
00:47:18,840 --> 00:47:22,799
Speaker 1: a company, technology, a trend in tech. Maybe it's just

810
00:47:22,880 --> 00:47:24,880
Speaker 1: something you want to know more about, let me know

811
00:47:25,040 --> 00:47:27,440
Speaker 1: on Twitter the handle for the show it's tech Stuff

812
00:47:27,760 --> 00:47:31,839
Speaker 1: h s W and I'll talk to you again really soon.

813
00:47:36,920 --> 00:47:39,960
Speaker 1: Text Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. For more

814
00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:43,400
Speaker 1: podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app,

815
00:47:43,560 --> 00:47:46,680
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.