Talk:Surface Suit

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Revision as of 23:35, 11 February 2009 by Len (Talk | contribs)

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Lunar Surface suit to dos <-- We are creating a to do list for the suits. Add your items to here.

Ideas For Consideration <-- This is for those wild ideas.

1/3/09 On first hearing this it seems insane, but consider: The human body requires pressure and oxygen. Oxygen must be supplied to the lungs at a specific pressure to sustain lung inflation and gas transfer. However, the REST of the human body is quite tolerant of very low pressure exposure for brief intervals. I'm suggesting a means where crew members can literally change out of contaminated suits into new suits even under lunar vacuum conditions. Maximum vac exposure for any specific part of the body would be a very few seconds. This can be safely tolerated provided it is properly facilitated. What this means is you have an unpressurized changing station that stores modular suit components at the ready. The astronaut would be positioned so that each component could be removed in sequence and changed out in mere seconds. Since the helmet would be the only component that is not 'skin tight', it remains. The contaminated elements are cleaned and recharged for the next change. Of course, this is only part of the problem. Clean suit components will help to maintain comfort and morale, but what about the astronaut himself? After about 36 hours a human being has perspired and emanated so much accumulation of skin cells, body oils, salts, microbial growth and urea-containing acids that he will begin to experience a mild allergic reaction. That is why we itch when we haven't showered. After four days, even the most enduring individual would be overwhelmed by the itching. Solution? A pressurized module about the size of an air lock allowing each astronaut to clean himself periodically. Ideally he would also clean his suit. Such a unit would be the size of a phone booth and could be designed to accommodate 'relief' measures of all types.

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