X-Ray of a Spacesuit

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Looks quite bulky and awkward - not a suit to go dancing in - but there are reasons for this:

"The shoulder area allows astronauts to localize air displacement and restrain the pressurization," she said. "The joints were designed to automatically localize the displacement of air."

In other words, if an astronaut lifted his or her arm in space without these specialized joints, the arm would balloon up—making it impossible to do work.

A few more images here if anyone is interested.

[Zakalwe]

Thanks for linking.

If that floats yer boat then I highly recommend this book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spacesuits-Amanda-Young/dp/1576874982/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375461166&sr=8-1&keywords=spacesuits

It's beautifully produced and has loads of fascinating images and information.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Looks quite bulky and awkward - not a suit to go dancing in - but there are reasons for this:

A few more images here if anyone is interested.

Displacement of air?

I was brought up to believe that space is a vacuum...............no air. The only time a space suit like this is needed is during space walks. I think if an astronaut was on a space walk and was exposed to the vacuum of space then they would having bigger problems then their arm swelling up and them not being able to work. Every drop of liquid in their body would start to boil in a matter of seconds and their whole body would inflate like a balloon and i'll leave the rest to your imagination.

Mind you the suit does look like its being held together by many "slinkys".

[Digz]

I'm guessing the displacement of air referred to is from inside the suit, I.e. to keep the suit evenly inflated whilst performing movements.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I'm guessing the displacement of air referred to is from inside the suit, I.e. to keep the suit evenly inflated whilst performing movements.

Ah ok. However if the suit is pressurised equally in all areas...................wouldn't that mean that there is no displacement of air within the suit even with any movement within?.

I really dont know, i'm just thinking/wondering.

[JohnC64]

wow thats a cool pic. Although if the suit can be xray'd, i guess there's no protection from cosmic rays and such nasties either.

Cheers John

[Zakalwe]

Ah ok. However if the suit is pressurised equally in all areas...................wouldn't that mean that there is no displacement of air within the suit even with any movement within?.

I really dont know, i'm just thinking/wondering.

Think of a flexible cylinder. Now bend that cylinder sharply at the midpoint to about 100⁰ It will "kink" and the overall volume of the cylinder will decrease. The same happens in a spacesuit at the elbow and knee joints. Now the air has to go somewhere, so what happens is that some other part of the suit inflates.

Suits also have to allow movement, so they use bellow at the joints. The bellows allow flexibility of movement, but they have to be contained, otherwise they would simply lengthen. So the suits use a complex set of cables and pulleys to stop the bellow extending. You can see the cables crossing the chest in this image of an Apollo era suit:

The crisp white exterior that we think of as suits is generally nothing more than a thermal control and micro-meteorite protection garment. It's white to reflect solar heat . In Apollo era suits it was made of an inner and outer shell of Beta cloth, seven layers of aluminised Kapton film separated by six layers of Beta Marquisette, and a liner of two layers of neoprene-coated nylon ripstop. A woven metal fabric called Chromel R was used to provide abrasion protection on boots, knees and elbows.

Space suits are really miniature spacecraft. They provide cooling, water, protection, an atmosphere, communications and allow mobility. They are a wonder of engineering.

This document from ILC gives loads more details:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/ILC-SpaceSuits-RevA.pdf