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  • Essay / Engineering Innovation: Apollo 11 Spacesuits

    When engineers set out to send a man into space and to the Moon, they knew that countless challenges awaited them. They were innovating, but also creating and discovering everything as they went along. There were many spacesuits before the Apollo missions, many of which were prototypes or concepts, but very few were used in space missions. But the Apollo suit would have to be very different from all the others because it had to go to a place no spacesuit has ever been designed to go, the Moon. In this report, I will describe the functions that the spacesuits were intended to perform. What type of environment they need to survive. And what was installed on these suits to enable them to perform and survive these functions and environments. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The surface of the moon does not contain many properties similar to those we experience on Earth. To begin with, there is no atmosphere and therefore no gases are contained in the non-existent atmosphere. Astronauts do not have oxygen to breathe because of these properties. Since there is no atmosphere on the Moon, it basically shares the same properties as in space. For this reason, the surface of the Moon is a vacuum. That being said, the pressure on the surface of the moon is 1.3 x 10-11 Pa. The average atmospheric pressure on Earth is 1.020 x 105 Pa. That's 8 quadrillion times higher than the pressure on the moon. The temperature of the space is approximately 270°C in direct sunlight and -170°C in no sunlight. We don't experience these harsh temperatures on Earth because our atmosphere protects us. It keeps the temperature cooler in direct sunlight and warmer when not exposed to sunlight, such as at night. The engineers tasked with making the spacesuit for Apollo 11 would have to effectively create a mini atmosphere around the astronauts, while still being flexible enough to carry out their tasks. on the surface of the moon.Spacesuits before Apollo 11 were essentially high-altitude enhanced suits. This means that they allowed the astronaut to breathe in the cockpits of their spacecraft during spaceflight. All models had a small artificial atmosphere inside, and some incorporated built-in radio communications devices. One thing that all spacesuits used in spaceflight before Apollo 11 have in common is the umbilical cord. The umbilical cord was the term given to the tube that connected the spacesuit to the ship. Through this tube passed oxygen mixtures to allow the astronaut to breathe, as well as radio communications wires and vital information. Spacewalks essentially took place when an astronaut voluntarily left a spacecraft in space. This was the beginning of the Apollo 11 spacesuit, as many of the same requirements were needed for both types of spacesuits. These spacesuits had to be able to withstand small meteorites hitting them, create a small atmosphere inside the spacesuits, and provide the astronaut with oxygen, cooling, and radio communications. But these suits still had the umbilical cord design incorporated. This was something that had to be abandoned for the Apollo 11 mission. The ILC Dover Company, a bra manufacturing company, was chosen from a list of candidates fordesign and create the space suit while The Hamilton Standard was chosen to create the life support system, aka the "backpack". However, more innovation would be necessary to create this engineering masterpiece. The spacesuit would have to be a soft design for the flexibility they needed to accomplish the tasks required of them. At the time, spacesuits fell between the idea of ​​having a hard design, mostly made of metal, or a soft design that would be mostly made of fabric. Hard designs would be easier to create and seal effectively, and engineers would be more accustomed to working with metal. But the soft design was superior because it allowed astronauts greater mobility that would be needed for scientific research as well as takeoff and landing. The spacesuit's oxygen supply would be very different from its predecessor. This time, it had to be placed in a “backpack” (Life support system) that the astronaut had to carry. The oxygen tanks and filtration system were located inside the backpack and were connected to the main spacesuit by tubes. The tubes had a dial on the side to direct the flow, where there were two options, 50% to the helmet and 50% to the arms and legs. Or 100% on headphones. The backpack was capable of supplying 2.8 Ls-1 or 5.7 Ls-1 of oxygen to the suit. The suit could also be connected to the spacecraft's oxygen supply, but this feature was almost never used. The suit also had to protect the astronaut from small asteroids or micrometeorites. The suit's fabric had many layers of different materials to protect against this and other effects of space. The outer layer featured TeFlou® fabric which was very effective in controlling and insulating the user from solar radiation. The second layer was something called “Super Beta Cloth”. This material could withstand heat of up to 650°C. It was a must-have after the fire in the Apollo 1 cockpit that killed all three astronauts. The remainder of the layers consisted of alternating Mylar®, Dacron®, and Beta Marquisette films, all of which worked very well to protect the astronauts from solar and galactic radiation. The helmets they wore were made of two parts. The first was the original glass "fishbowl" (pressure helmet) that covered the astronaut's entire head and was connected to special fittings that would hold the seal. This inner part had a small valve that could be used to pass food through in case of an emergency and they couldn't remove the spacesuits. The second part was the extravehicular visor assembly which covered the pressurized helmet and featured several polycarbonate and gold polysulfone visors to protect the astronaut from solar radiation and intense sunlight. Spacesuits were made of several layers, one that went on before the spacesuit itself. Under the heavy spacesuit made of the material mentioned in the previous paragraph, an overall layer covered the astronauts. It was called the heat exchange system and looked like a modified set of “long johns.” The fabric would be covered with small plastic tubes. Through these plastic tubes, cold water was pumped from the backpack to cool the astronaut with his own body heat. It worked in much the same way as a refrigerator. In this layer there was also a urine collection system. Like the astronauts 2019].