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nytpu

@JackEnrod
The Apollo space suits were actually very cleverly designed with the inner pressure vessel being covered by many layers of various protective fabrics (including fiberglass cloth IIRC).

Even if the suit did somehow get a tear, they were only pressurized to 3–5 PSI (the partial pressure of oxygen in air) so if the astronaut found the leak they could probably just cover it with their hand and seal it until they got back to the capsule and could either abort the mission or permanently reseal it (dunno if they had a method of repairing suits in Apollo yet, I'd assume so). They could connect to the other astronaut's space suit as well if their air supply started running out.

@wonderofscience

The space suit used in the Apollo missions without all the outer protective layers, showing just the internal pressure vessels. There's rigid fabric in the torso, and what looks like corrugated semiflexible plastic in the limbs (so they don't inflate out into round balloons)
The full space suit from the moon, it is substantially thicker because of all the padding, insulation, and other protective layers
13 Jul 2023 at 14:14 | Wall-to-wall | Open on tilde.zone
5 comments
Meercat ✅
Nik0 :coolified:

@nytpu @JackEnrod @wonderofscience
I just realized that engineers are mostly nerds who watch alot horror or disaster movies who can think of any horror scenario imaginable and find a solution to those scenarios.

13 Jul 2023 at 15:28 | Open on mstdn.social
Sampath Pāṇini ®

@ashiisbest @nytpu @JackEnrod @wonderofscience
Apparently, that superpower didn’t transfer from atoms to bits.

13 Jul 2023 at 20:19 | Open on mastodon.world
keplerniko

@nytpu @JackEnrod @wonderofscience Thank you for this insightful and probably-correct post. I went to Space Camp four times and was a space geek as a kid, so I already knew that the suits weren’t pressurised to 1 bar.

Doesn’t change the fact the astronauts were probably had a bit of mild panic at each fall that they could tear some sort of hole in the suit, but you have articulately and clearly explained why that even that fear on the Moon would have been more or less irrational: the chance of a life-threatening situation was fairly low.

@nytpu @JackEnrod @wonderofscience Thank you for this insightful and probably-correct post. I went to Space Camp four times and was a space geek as a kid, so I already knew that the suits weren’t pressurised to 1 bar.

Doesn’t change the fact the astronauts were probably had a bit of mild panic at each fall that they could tear some sort of hole in the suit, but you have articulately and clearly explained why that even that fear on the Moon would have been more or less irrational: the chance of a...

13 Jul 2023 at 20:14 | Open on techhub.social
Spandex Grëghound

@nytpu @JackEnrod @wonderofscience
You've just ruined tons of sci-fi where someone dies or has a major emergency from a tiny leak that empties the high pressure suit in a matter of minutes or seconds. It's cool to learn how they actually worked though! 😂 😁

13 Jul 2023 at 23:03 | Open on mstdn.ca
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