SpaceX unveils the spacesuit Jared Isaacman will use to do the first private spacewalk
SpaceX this past weekend unveiled the spacesuit that Jared Isaacman will use on his Polaris Dawn mission, presently scheduled for this coming summer, to do the first spacewalk by a private citizen.
This spacewalk suit is based on SpaceX’s flight suits that astronauts presently wear when inside Dragon, but is much more capable. From SpaceX’s webpage:
Developed with mobility in mind, SpaceX teams incorporated new materials, fabrication processes, and novel joint designs to provide greater flexibility to astronauts in pressurized scenarios while retaining comfort for unpressurized scenarios. The 3D-printed helmet incorporates a new visor to reduce glare during the EVA in addition to the new Heads-Up Display (HUD) and camera that provide information on the suit’s pressure, temperature, and relative humidity. The suit also incorporates enhancements for reliability and redundancy during a spacewalk, adding seals and pressure valves to help ensure the suit remains pressurized and the crew remains safe.
Creating this suit was the main reason Isaacman’s five day orbital Polaris Dawn mission was delayed by almost two years.
I wonder what it cost SpaceX to develop this new suit. I strongly suspect it was much cheaper than the spacesuits NASA has hired Axiom and Collins Aerospace to create. It certainly has been built faster.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
SpaceX this past weekend unveiled the spacesuit that Jared Isaacman will use on his Polaris Dawn mission, presently scheduled for this coming summer, to do the first spacewalk by a private citizen.
This spacewalk suit is based on SpaceX’s flight suits that astronauts presently wear when inside Dragon, but is much more capable. From SpaceX’s webpage:
Developed with mobility in mind, SpaceX teams incorporated new materials, fabrication processes, and novel joint designs to provide greater flexibility to astronauts in pressurized scenarios while retaining comfort for unpressurized scenarios. The 3D-printed helmet incorporates a new visor to reduce glare during the EVA in addition to the new Heads-Up Display (HUD) and camera that provide information on the suit’s pressure, temperature, and relative humidity. The suit also incorporates enhancements for reliability and redundancy during a spacewalk, adding seals and pressure valves to help ensure the suit remains pressurized and the crew remains safe.
Creating this suit was the main reason Isaacman’s five day orbital Polaris Dawn mission was delayed by almost two years.
I wonder what it cost SpaceX to develop this new suit. I strongly suspect it was much cheaper than the spacesuits NASA has hired Axiom and Collins Aerospace to create. It certainly has been built faster.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Frustratingly enough, an EVA spacesuit is not quite the same as a walk on the surface of Moon suit, nor a walk on the surface of Mars suit. Nor a work in space like on the ISS suit.
SpaceX sort of tackled the easiest one. (Good for them, don’t boil the ocean, first try). But it gives them experience to try and grow to the other harder topics.
Interestingly, the ISS suits are barely walkable in. Mostly they lock their legs for leverage (To the CanadaArm2 or to a mount point) and use their arms for everything else.
The dust/dirt on Moon/Mars and the atmosphere differences on Mars/Moon lead to different designs there as well.
But I am betting SpaceX can develop one faster/cheaper than NASA.
Interestingly, the ISS suits are barely walkable in. Mostly they lock their legs for leverage (To the CanadaArm2 or to a mount point) and use their arms for everything else.
And for this reason I wonder why they even still have soft legs. They could do the very same with a hard suit below the waist.
Making the bottom a hard suit would remove a huge portion of the parts that would need maintained or changed out.
My understanding is that the new suits will be tethered, which naturally reduces system complexity. I assume that SpaceX is working on some kind of portable life support for future versions of the suit
pzatchok wrote: “And for this reason I wonder why they even still have soft legs.”
It may have something to do with fitting within the airlock.
“ This bears repeating: NASA will spent more than a billion dollars and fourteen years to build two spacesuits.”
https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/inspector-general-slams-nasa-spacesuit-program/
Max, from the link you posted there was a comment by Bill S about an abandoned prototype NASA developed from Ames. His link doesn’t work but Gurgle has this link that works. Interesting design. It has a Ghost Buster/Michelin Man vibe for all the modern culture fans out there. I’m pretty sure lunar dust will end up galling all the rotary joints but I don’t think there going to be a magic suit that makes sense in both EVA and lunar environments. That lunar dust is a serious problem and not just for suits;
Link: https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/pressure-suit-ax-5/nasm_A20040266000