Space suite

If there was an emergency in space and you had to wear your space suit for a
week, where would all the **** and **** go? What if you puked in your space
suite?

"Nog" wrote in message
news:Z_2bf.238$SV1.108@trndny01...
If there was an emergency in space and you had to wear your space suit for
a
week, where would all the **** and **** go?

That depends on the design of the suit, but I believe that this sort of
issue was considered when the suits were designed for Apollo, so I'd try
doing a bit of research in that direction.

What if you puked in your space suite?

Call the front desk and tell them there was a mess that needed cleaned? ;-)

Jeff
--
Remove icky phrase from email address to get a valid address.

If there was an emergency in space and you had to wear your space suit for a
week, where would all the **** and **** go? What if you puked in your space
suite?

If you're referring to existing space suits, and if you mean the suit
absolutely cannot be removed or opened at all during the week, the
answers a

1) The urine will overflow the urine collection device and end up
everywhere in the suit. Space suits aren't tight-fitting.
2) The crap will squish where ever it gets squished to. Brace for
diaper rash.
3) The puke is there to stay, like the other stuff.

There are several other issues for modern space suits when they're worn
for a week:

1) They don't have a week's air supply
2) They don't have a week's coolant supply (modern suits are cooled
with sublimating water)
3) They don't have much of a water supply for the astronaut (shuttle
EMU suits offer 21 and 32-ounce water bags), and no food supply.

Mike Miller

wrote in message
oups.com...
If there was an emergency in space and you had to wear your space suit
for a
week, where would all the **** and **** go? What if you puked in your
space
suite?

If you're referring to existing space suits, and if you mean the suit
absolutely cannot be removed or opened at all during the week, the
answers a

1) The urine will overflow the urine collection device and end up
everywhere in the suit. Space suits aren't tight-fitting.
2) The crap will squish where ever it gets squished to. Brace for
diaper rash.
3) The puke is there to stay, like the other stuff.

There are several other issues for modern space suits when they're worn
for a week:

1) They don't have a week's air supply

They don't have to when they're attached to the ship's air supply. Apollo
suits had umbilicals for this purpose. The only time they used the portable
life support system (i.e. the backpacks) was for lunar EVA's. All other
Apollo EVA's, including Skylab, used umbilicals. Most (all?) Gemini EVA's
didn't use backpacks either, except for the Gemini EVA which was to include
testing of a manned maneuvering unit (which was cancelled due to overheating
of the astronaut during EVA).

2) They don't have a week's coolant supply (modern suits are cooled
with sublimating water)

Cooling water can also be supplied via umbilical. Again, see Apollo suits.

3) They don't have much of a water supply for the astronaut (shuttle
EMU suits offer 21 and 32-ounce water bags), and no food supply.

I'd imagine that the suits used in the CEV will need umbilical attachments
to handle just such a contingency. It would be easy enough to provide a
drinking water supply through the umbilical. Since you've got air and
cooling water connections anyway, what's one more connection?

Jeff
--
Remove icky phrase from email address to get a valid address.

If there was an emergency in space and you had to wear your space
suit for a week, where would all the **** and **** go? What if
you puked in your space suite?

1) They don't have a week's air supply

They don't have to when they're attached to the ship's air supply.

Unless of course the emergency happened to involve the ship's air
supply... but then we come-back to the question of duration of
consumables in a completely independent-of-the-ship spacesuit.

Apollo suits had umbilicals for this purpose. The only time they
used the portable life support system (i.e. the backpacks) was for
lunar EVA's. All other Apollo EVA's, including Skylab, used
umbilicals. Most (all?) Gemini EVA's didn't use backpacks either,
except for the Gemini EVA which was to include testing of a manned
maneuvering unit (which was cancelled due to overheating of the
astronaut during EVA).

So, why were umbillicals dropped for ISS EVA's? Doesn't that tether
get rather in the way?

3) They don't have much of a water supply for the astronaut
(shuttle EMU suits offer 21 and 32-ounce water bags), and no food
supply.

I'd imagine that the suits used in the CEV will need umbilical
attachments to handle just such a contingency. It would be easy
enough to provide a drinking water supply through the umbilical.
Since you've got air and cooling water connections anyway, what's
one more connection?

Straws and the backs of camels come to mind Or perhaps angels
dancing on the head of a pin

I would think that a space suit which relied on a tether would make it
somewhat difficult to go from one spaceship to another - say the
rescue ship if such a thing existed. One might dock I suppose, or go
the path of "Iron Man One" or somesuch, but a tether-less suit seems
to be more "flexible" - modulo the issue of consumables.

rick jones
--
The glass is neither half-empty nor half-full. The glass has a leak.
The real question is "Can it be patched?"
these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway...
feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH...

Jeff Findley wrote:
They don't have to when they're attached to the ship's air supply.

I know. I was addressing the internal capabilities of existing suits.

I'd imagine that the suits used in the CEV will need umbilical attachments
to handle just such a contingency. It would be easy enough to provide a
drinking water supply through the umbilical. Since you've got air and
cooling water connections anyway, what's one more connection?

Certainly. If Nog is asking about a hypothetical situation where new
suits can be designed for long-term, sealed habitation, there's quite a
few options for creating long endurance spacesuits.

Mike Miller

On Tue, 8 Nov 2005 10:36:35 -0500, "Jeff Findley"
sprachen:

I'd imagine that the suits used in the CEV will need umbilical attachments
to handle just such a contingency. It would be easy enough to provide a
drinking water supply through the umbilical. Since you've got air and
cooling water connections anyway, what's one more connection?

And one back for urine.

Without being stupid, well, as little as possible, is it sometimes
possible to get bare skin, ie your bumcheeks, out in space
unprotected? Somewhere between freezing and boiling, there has to be a
temperate zone right?

Obviously you'd need pressure seals either side.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

if love is a drug, then, ideally, it's a healing, healthful drug... it's
kind of like prozac is supposed to work (without the sexual side
effects and long-term damage to the brain and psyche)

Rick Jones wrote:
So, why were umbillicals dropped for ISS EVA's? Doesn't that tether
get rather in the way?

I think you are misunderstanding. Current EVA suits (both US and
Russian) do use umbilicals which are connected for in-airlock
operations. They disconnect them before they step outside. This is
particularly important for cooling, as the sublimaters don't work
unless they are in vacuum (I have a vague memory that they are not
supposed to be used in a evacuated airlock either, but I'm not certain
of that.)

Once outside, tethers are used as a safety device, but do not provide
consumables. They are just ropes with latches. Much like rock climbing,
on can transfer to one tether point to another, while remaining
tethered at all times. They do get in the way to some extent, but
better that than going adrift. Especially in Orlan, which has nothing
like the SAFER propulsion device available on US suits.

Point being that just because a suit is capable of independent flight
doesn't mean that it can't also use ship/station resources.

Of course, current EVA suits don't have any provision for waste
disposal or drinking water via the umbilicals, and I would be rather
surprised if such a thing were added in the future.

wrote in message
ups.com...

Jeff Findley wrote:
They don't have to when they're attached to the ship's air supply.

I know. I was addressing the internal capabilities of existing suits.

I'd imagine that the suits used in the CEV will need umbilical
attachments
to handle just such a contingency. It would be easy enough to provide a
drinking water supply through the umbilical. Since you've got air and
cooling water connections anyway, what's one more connection?

Certainly. If Nog is asking about a hypothetical situation where new
suits can be designed for long-term, sealed habitation, there's quite a
few options for creating long endurance spacesuits.

Mike Miller

Well I certainly hope they have adaquate suits for the trip to mars and
beyond knowing anything can happen.

Nog wrote:

Well I certainly hope they have adaquate suits for the trip to mars and
beyond knowing anything can happen.

How would a spacesuit with a week-long endurance help on a 9-month trip
to Mars?

At some point, you just have to get out of the suit. If you're worried
about hull punctures on a mission to Mars, the trick would be to
compartmentalize the ship so some areas will retain pressure even if
others are holed.

Mike Miller