What ever happened to on-orbit assembly?

"TangoMan" wrote in message news:qZSsb.385118$9l5.265578@pd7tw2no...
"Henry Spencer" wrote in message
...

...All the other hardsuit designs I know of are
at least 30 years old.

There's been more recent work, at places like Ames (if memory serves) --
in particular, the space-station program was funding hardsuit work for a
while in hopes of getting a zero-prebreathe suit.

The AMES AX/5
http://ails.arc.nasa.gov/Images/Spac...468-154_a.jpeg

Check out this picture at Nuytco:
http://nuytco.com/history.html

That sure looks like the same suit- note the lift-points on the pack,
the banding, gloves, etc. Just from the visuals, the rotary joints in
the AX-5 look a lot like the NewtSuit. I'm not sure if Phil Nuytten
was involved in AX-5 development, but it wouldn't surprise me. a quick
search pulls several references to the AX-5 being built by Vic
Vykukal, does anyone know the status of the AX-5 (abandoned,
mothballed, ready for flight?), Mr. Vykukal, or the relation between
the AX-5 and NewtSuit?

http://ails.arc.nasa.gov/Images/Space/

Scroll down to "space suits" - they have several pics of the AX-5,
including neutral bouyancy tests. The fitting stand pics w/ people of
differing hieghts is interesting, along with the interchangable
limb-extenders. The limb extensions look a lot like how the NewtSuits
are sized for different divers, except NS uses semi-spheres for all
limb components.

The JSC Mark III
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/nasrkiii.htm

The Mark III is pretty sweet- if you read Mark Wade's description, the
suit is pretty acrobatic. flexible enough to do handstands and
somersaults, and even... KNEEL!

J05H

TangoMan

(Al Jackson) wrote:
As for the involvement of Peenemünde engineers in 'Production' of the V2
I can give no better references than:

I've read all three. And certainly Peenemunde engineers were involved
with production, as Peenemunde was the center of the V2 project.

Please note that I never said Peenenmunde wasn't involved in
production, I said *von Braun* wasn't involved in production. What
you can't seem to understand in "Peenenmunde engineers" is *not* a
synonym for "von Braun & Co". von Braun was one small part of what
became a pretty good sized organization, and his role has become
exaggerated with time.

D.
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Corrections, comments, and additions should be
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discussion.

On 15 Nov 2003 12:43:23 -0800, in a place far, far away,
(Josh Gigantino) made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

That sure looks like the same suit- note the lift-points on the pack,
the banding, gloves, etc. Just from the visuals, the rotary joints in
the AX-5 look a lot like the NewtSuit. I'm not sure if Phil Nuytten
was involved in AX-5 development, but it wouldn't surprise me. a quick
search pulls several references to the AX-5 being built by Vic
Vykukal, does anyone know the status of the AX-5 (abandoned,
mothballed, ready for flight?), Mr. Vykukal, or the relation between
the AX-5 and NewtSuit?

Vic was strongly influenced by Phil Nuytten's work.

--
simberg.interglobal.org * 310 372-7963 (CA) 307 739-1296 (Jackson Hole)
interglobal space lines * 307 733-1715 (Fax) http://www.interglobal.org

"Extraordinary launch vehicles require extraordinary markets..."
Swap the first . and @ and throw out the ".trash" to email me.
Here's my email address for autospammers:

(Derek Lyons) wrote in message ...
(Al Jackson) wrote:
As for the involvement of Peenemünde engineers in 'Production' of the V2
I can give no better references than:

I've read all three. And certainly Peenemunde engineers were involved
with production, as Peenemunde was the center of the V2 project.

Please note that I never said Peenenmunde wasn't involved in
production, I said *von Braun* wasn't involved in production. What
you can't seem to understand in "Peenenmunde engineers" is *not* a
synonym for "von Braun & Co". von Braun was one small part of what
became a pretty good sized organization, and his role has become
exaggerated with time.

D.

Ok so we got that Peenemunde thing straight.

Well, the same was true of the Colliers series too.

From what I read, those books and others, even talking to old
Peenemunde engineers, von Braun was an extrodinary manager. Hard to
see any other who could have had the R and D success they had at
Peenemunde without him.
Funny thing is , it was , as Speer later noted, the V2 was not an
effective
weapon during WWII.

In article , G EddieA95 wrote:
1/6 G is enough to avoid the
biomedical problems of free fall; there are faint hints that it's not.

What are these faint hints? AIUI, no one has been in 1/6 g long enough for
health issues to arise.

At a guess, comparative testing - take the CMP from a later Apollo
flight, compare to the CDR or LMP - but even so, I do get the impression
that there wasn't a long enough timeframe.

Quick question: some Apollo flights carried small biological experiments
- I'm thinking of the A17 "tube of mice" (Biocore?), there may be others
- and did any of these get flown in the LM rather than just the CM?
Might be some data there, but I'm two hundred miles from references g

--
-Andrew Gray

"Henry Spencer" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Josh Gigantino wrote:
...Another option for a zero-G hardsuit would be to
lose the legs, and have the operator's legs rest in half-domes, with
cold gas thrusters and maybe a connector for a SSRMS-type arm
on the bottom.

It's a perennial suggestion, but even in free fall, legs turn out to
be
quite useful.

Would it be so desirable that such a hard suit provide the degree of leg
movement and sensitivity that a soft suit enables? For example, would
an external robotic leg, be acceptable where a robotic hand would not?
I have always been very impressed with the finesse some drivers of
forklifts, bobcats, small submersibles, etc., display, might such an
approach be practical in space?

The approach I have always liked the sound of is a hard suit come
general utility vehicle, which looks something like a person sized gas
cylinder, with external robotic like arms and legs, as desired, and soft
suit type arms and gloves, for fine work. By my figuring a small
pressure vessel would actually be lighter and cheaper than a soft suit
with added advantages like, food and toilet facilities, external
docking, inflatable modules, (carry your home on your back), capacity
for internal movement, (so you can scratch your nose), durability,
longer duration, etc.

I do not find the prospect of a soft suit very appealing, considering
the limitations. It would seem easier to use such a utility vehicle for
on space assembly and maintenance in conjunction with pressurised
hangers for hands on assembly and repair work.

Pete.

lid (John Savard) wrote in message ...
On 11 Nov 2003 06:02:56 -0800, (Al Jackson) wrote, in
part:

The years of March 2002 to April 2004 are the 50th anniversary of the
great Colliers Series on Space flight. (The von Braun, Ley, Whipple,
Bonestell, et al...... team.)

I recently encountered a rather critical view of that series, at

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/rocketscience-03zzf.html


One nit , seems the article says 1952 to 1953, the Mars Project issue
was April 30, 1954: Can We Get to Mars?
See my page:

http://www.flash.net/~aajiv/bd/uss1.html

Actually all the von Braun and crew study was done before 1950!
I know this from interveiwing Dr. Joachim Mühlner an old .
The Collier's series was really kind of 'back fill', the space station
and
Moon expedition.... tho I am sure they all his Peenemünder guys talked
about these ideas while waiting at White Sands.
I think even von Braun knew even at the time that the cost estimates
were wrong, I think he was just 'ball parking' it.

Tho published only first as Marsprojekt; Studie einer
interplanetrischen Expedition. Sonderheft der
ZeitschriftWeltraumfahrt. Frankfurt: Umschau Verlag, 1952.

One notes later von Braun modified the Mars Project down to just two
ships
The Exploration of Mars
by Willy Ley and Wernher von Braun
illustrated by Chesley Bonestell
(Viking edition 1956.)