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?
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?
The pressure in the Apollo 1 capsule was 16.7 PSI or 1.14 atmospheres of pure oxygen. That’s almost 5.5 times the partial pressure of oxygen at sea level. At 5 PSI, the Polaris crew will only be at 1.6 times the partial pressure of oxygen at sea level.
You’re right, the Apollo 1 was significantly higher pressure. Didn’t know that. 😲 Makes somewhat more sense they could keep a pure oxygen atmosphere even after the accident.
Also, calculating partial pressures in psi is really annoying.
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.
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.
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