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| | Johnson Space Center laboratory is busy this time of the year. A group
of NASA engineers are designing the new space suits to be used by the US
astronauts on their missions to the moon and Mars. Looking back in
history of space missions, it's interesting to note how the spacesuit
design have evolved. It started with the robot like looking suits made
with tinfoil and Mercury aluminum mix, and evolved into the bulky
white suits of today which weigh 275 pounds.
It's still early to know how exactly the new space suit design will
look, like, but NASA engineers say they want them to be both low
maintenance and high-tech.
"There's a trade-off between mobility, low maintenance and hi-tech
features of the suits," says Jeff Williams, one of the veteran US
astronauts. The weight of 275 pounds in the modern American suits
space wear is due to a lot of technology built into it which adds up
to the bulky weight. Such suits are designed to be used for a long
periods of time, and sometimes even from mission to mission, which
requires a lot of maintenance. Russian space suits, on the other hand,
require low maintenance simply because they are used only several
times are disposed of later. Russians also tend to do
"one size fits all" type of space wear, while Americans craft each
suit to a particular astronaut.
In the old days of Apollo missions the design of astronaut space
suits was carried on a
table using slide rules, paper and plastic. Nowadays design is mostly
computer based using 3-D complex technology, which makes it faster,
and cheaper. Advances in technology may allow to decrease weight of
all high tech gadgets built into the astronaut's "backpack". Low power
is another key feature, which is a must, since any spark can lead to
the devastating consequences inside of oxygen rich space suit. Mobility is
also very important. Jeff Williams say that those robot like jumps
on the moon which everyone remembers were in fact due to the lack of
mobility in the suit design.
Director of the design lab said the price tag is not yet known on the
new suits, but most likely they won't come cheap. Those are the
space suits which will be a crucial part of the missions to Moon and
Mars in 2014 and they will be a part of the history. |
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NASA has designed new 