space suits?

[ehs40]

i was wondering if a space suit is reused or if new ones are used everytime for an EVA at the iss?

 

[najab]

They are reused.

 

[CalliArcale]

They are far too expensive to be single use. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> They're actually very sophisticated devices in their own right -- essentially very small manned spacecraft.<br /><br />Russian EVA suits, called "Orlan", are monolithic. I've seen one once. They open at the back -- basically, the backpack swings open like a door and the cosmonaut slips in through the resulting hole. They are made to fit a range of body sizes, but there is a limit to the one-size-fits-all approach.<br /><br />American EVA suits, called "EMU" (for Extravehicular Mobility Unit -- NASA's a government agency and therefore loves acronyms), are modular. The largest single piece is the Hard Upper Torso (HUT). The various pieces can be mixed and matched to fit a wide range of astronaut body sizes and shapes. So a Shuttle or ISS mission doesn't have just one or two EMUs -- they've usually got enough pieces to assemble the required minimum plus a bit more. This makes them much more versatile in terms of who can fit into them, and also has benefits for on-orbit repair; you can swap out entire components very easily. But it doesn't come cheap.<br /><br />The suits for launch and reentry for both Russian and American crewmen are, I believe, custom-made to fit a particular person. I know the Russian ones are; I'm not 100% sure about the American ones. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[chriscdc]

Do you know any links to sites that have technical details of suits? I don't even know how they seal them up once you are inside.<br />Also how come the gloves can rotate so freely, they surely can't be connected to the same pressure bladder as the torso?<br /><br />Also why didn't the russians and US agree on a a standardised set of interconnects such as oxygen supplies to the suits? Didn't they have to use one set of suits because the others were broken, but as a result they had to climb over half the ISS to get to the part they needed to fix/install.<br />Why didn't they just agree on one set of suits to begin with, did the russian suit designers really know enough to sell their rocket info to countries like Iran?

 

[CalliArcale]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Do you know any links to sites that have technical details of suits? I don't even know how they seal them up once you are inside.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Try googling it. I unfortunately have a lot of meetings coming up, or I'd dig something up for you.<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Also how come the gloves can rotate so freely, they surely can't be connected to the same pressure bladder as the torso?<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />There are several rotating joints on the EMUs (not sure about the Orlans; when I got to see an Orlan, I was much younger and not looking at that much detail). These work in much the same way as other rotating joints in things that have to be airtight (or at least watertight; there are water pipes that use similar techniques). Basically, there's a special interconnect between the sections that keeps the junction sealed while it rotates. This was found to be much more effective (albeit more technically challenging) than the old Mercury/Gemini strategy of sewing the joints in.<br /><br />Similar technology is also used in a lot of deep sea diving suits.<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Also why didn't the russians and US agree on a a standardised set of interconnects such as oxygen supplies to the suits? Didn't they have to use one set of suits because the others were broken, but as a result they had to climb over half the ISS to get to the part they needed to fix/install.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />The intent was to have Quest carry equipment to service both, but that got dropped. I expect beaurocracy or cost (or both) was the reason. Sharing technical data between the US and Russia is not easy because it has to go through a lot of heavily political beaurocracy to make sure that nothing damaging is being exposed to a potential enemy.<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Why d</p></blockquote> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[chriscdc]

Thank you Calli.