SpaceX @sh.itjust.works doomi @discuss.tchncs.de 6 mo. ago

Everyday Astronaut: Interview with the Polaris Dawn Crew

13 comments

Interesting facts from the video:

100% oxygen only in the suits, not in the capsule

suit pressure above 5 PSI. The suits have to be pretty good to keep mobility with this pressure!
- Great interview, this tech demo is going to neat to hear the results.
  
  I was really curious how they fit an airlock in the capsule, but then they started talking about the whole thing being depressurized.
  
  Then using the EVA suit as the IVA suit?
  
  They're really going all in on this, hope nothing goes wrong, cause there's not a lot of room for error. Even with all the redundancy.
  
  Would be outstanding if they are really able to service Hubble after they get the tech worked out.
- 100% oxygen in the suits would cause them to spontaneously combust.
  
  But ok. Whatever.
  
  Pretty much all modern EVA suits (like the ones used by US, China, Russia) run a pure oxygen at about .20 ATM so that the internal pressure is lower but the amount of oxygen the astronaut is breathing is the same density of oxygen as at 1 ATM. This allows much better maneuverability in the space suit, because any air mixture at 1 ATM makes it nearly immediately to move in a space suit (they become too stiff).
  
  Point is, we have been doing spacewalks like this since spacewalks started and no one has spontaneously combusted on one.
  
  That’s what they said in the interview. And didn’t Apollo also had a pure oxygen environment? As long as there isn’t a spark it wouldn’t combust, right?
  
  With 100% oxygen you will be fine down to 4 psi or so. Mixed gas would need substantially higher pressure and that would likely make those suits too stiff to move.
  
  100% oxygen doesn’t cause humans to spontaneously combust. It does make them more flammable, but that’s already controlled for in spaceflight.
23:23 "Most of the IVA suits have an inseam zipper ..."

Just checking that everyone (who wants to) has seen this in action. Here's Sultan Al Neyadi putting on his IVA suit without assistance while on the ISS. (32:49 to 38:12.)

Is anyone aware of a better video of the suit than that?
- POLL Response 1: I was ALREADY aware of this video footage. (Upvote this comment if so.)
- POLL Response 2: I was NOT already aware of this video footage. (Upvote this comment if so.)

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