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_really_ strange space suit



 
 
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  #11  
Old December 28th 07, 07:04 AM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Dave Michelson
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Default _really_ strange space suit

Quadibloc wrote:
On Dec 23, 3:17 am, Pat Flannery wrote:
I was looking around over at "Modern Mechanix", and you _have_ to see
this spacesuit design.
This is what would have happened if Pablo Picasso had been hired as a
design consultant for NASA.
Words fail me:http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/...wear-in-space/


Ah, but that isn't a *regular* space suit. It's just a cheap
*emergency* space suit in case of a loss of cabin pressure. Ordinary
space suits to actually *do* things in will be the more expensive kind
with _two_ legs and _two_ arms.


Pat's comment is still valid: The suit looks positively cubist.

So it's not really strange if you read the article and take the text
into consideration.


And it's not as claustrophic as those awful rescue balls!

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/reseball.htm

http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/p...y_10299313.jpg

A single arm on the rescue ball might have made some sense.

--
Dave Michelson

  #12  
Old December 29th 07, 12:07 AM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Pat Flannery
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Default _really_ strange space suit



Quadibloc wrote:
Ah, but that isn't a *regular* space suit. It's just a cheap
*emergency* space suit in case of a loss of cabin pressure. Ordinary
space suits to actually *do* things in will be the more expensive kind
with _two_ legs and _two_ arms.

So it's not really strange if you read the article and take the text
into consideration.


In an emergency, you get into this...and then what? You can grab at
things with the arm, but that's all you can do. Since it doesn't have
separate movable legs or twin arms you can't move around in it other
than trying to grab things with the single arm and drag yourself
clumsily around that way.
Even the single arm has a glove at the end that looks pretty unusable
for trying to push buttons and you suspect that the designer though that
the spacecraft would be steered via a joystick, like a jet fighter.
It makes you wonder what the exact advantage of it is supposed to be; it
doesn't look to be much lighter than a conventional pressure suit, while
greatly restraining the astronaut's mobility.
At the very least you'd have thought they would give it two separate arms.

Pat
  #13  
Old December 29th 07, 12:18 AM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Pat Flannery
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Default _really_ strange space suit



Dave Michelson wrote:

And it's not as claustrophic as those awful rescue balls!

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/reseball.htm

http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/p...y_10299313.jpg


A single arm on the rescue ball might have made some sense.


That would look even odder in its own way.
Wait a second... those stalks on the Martian blueberries... those could
be tiny Martian armsleeves!
(Cut to tiny Martians bouncing around on their single arm as the
Opportunity rover approaches)
"A War Machine! A Terran War Machine! Play dead and pray it ignores
you...It's too late...it's getting ready to use the killer radioactive
backscatter ray again!" :-)

Pat
  #14  
Old December 29th 07, 05:41 AM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Peter Stickney
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Default _really_ strange space suit

Pat Flannery wrote:



Quadibloc wrote:
Ah, but that isn't a *regular* space suit. It's just a cheap
*emergency* space suit in case of a loss of cabin pressure. Ordinary
space suits to actually *do* things in will be the more expensive kind
with _two_ legs and _two_ arms.

So it's not really strange if you read the article and take the text
into consideration.


In an emergency, you get into this...and then what? You can grab at
things with the arm, but that's all you can do. Since it doesn't have
separate movable legs or twin arms you can't move around in it other
than trying to grab things with the single arm and drag yourself
clumsily around that way.
Even the single arm has a glove at the end that looks pretty unusable
for trying to push buttons and you suspect that the designer though that
the spacecraft would be steered via a joystick, like a jet fighter.


And Pat, after bracketing the target, moves on without confirming the shot.
It's not a "Space Suit" per se. It is a pressure suit to be used by
aircraft pilots for controlling a high altitude airplane while descending
to a region where the air is thick enough that your blood doesn't boil, and
your Diluter-Demand Oxygen System will function.
Yeah - getting it on in a hurry was one of those things that the hadn't
quite figured out yet.
Consider it to e a Dry Clean Only variant of the B-58 Encapsulated Pilot's
Seat.
Note for non pilots - - No, you don't need to be tramping on the rudder all
time when you're flying. You don't rudder an airplane around like it was a
blimp - or a boat - the rudder serves to keep the pointy part pointed
straight into the airflow - You can fly perfectly well, albeit sloppily,
without rudder input at all.


It makes you wonder what the exact advantage of it is supposed to be; it
doesn't look to be much lighter than a conventional pressure suit, while
greatly restraining the astronaut's mobility.
At the very least you'd have thought they would give it two separate arms.


Well - if it were, actually a space suit...

--
Pete Stickney
Without data, all you have is an opinion
  #15  
Old December 29th 07, 07:43 AM posted to sci.space.history
Pat Flannery
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Posts: 18,465
Default _really_ strange space suit



Peter Stickney wrote:
Consider it to e a Dry Clean Only variant of the B-58 Encapsulated Pilot's
Seat.
Note for non pilots - - No, you don't need to be tramping on the rudder all
time when you're flying. You don't rudder an airplane around like it was a
blimp - or a boat - the rudder serves to keep the pointy part pointed
straight into the airflow - You can fly perfectly well, albeit sloppily,
without rudder input at all.


You know what they're going to do...they're going to make you wear it
for the whole flight.
And the article says it's for spaceflight:
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/...wear-in-space/
We can trust high-quality scientific periodicals like MI to get their
facts right.
They were the ones who in March of 1956 told us that the Air Force
already had VTOL Avro discs in operation, and suggested that we build a
gigantic "Atoms For Peace" nuclear powered dirigible and fly it around
the world impressing the lesser races with just how advanced our
technology was...and that their choices were Truth, Justice, and the
American Way, or Godless Communism and thermonuclear annihilation at the
hands of "Atoms For Peace" nuclear bomber dirigibles escorted by flying
saucers piloted by men in strange rubber bondage spacesuits with only
one arm on them.
Once we made those facts clear to them, and they understood that we were
more dangerously crazed than a rabid wolverine, they would think twice
before complaining about working for The United Fruit Company for a dime
a day, lest we cut one of their arms off with a machete, and shove them
into a rubber spacesuit as part of our "Zombies Of The Stratosphere" force.
Respect, that's what the US needs...respect!
Once you cut one of their arms off, their hearts and minds will almost
surely and literally follow.
It's that sort of foreign policy that made the Aztecs and Mayans so
respected by the other people who lived in proximity to them. ;-)

Pat

  #16  
Old December 30th 07, 03:18 AM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Scott Hedrick[_2_]
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Default _really_ strange space suit


"Dave Michelson" wrote in message
news:qe1dj.25111$vd4.17387@pd7urf1no...
A single arm on the rescue ball might have made some sense.


"Yoohoo!" waving arm "Here I am!"


  #17  
Old December 30th 07, 08:14 AM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Pat Flannery
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Default _really_ strange space suit



Scott Hedrick wrote:
"Dave Michelson" wrote in message
news:qe1dj.25111$vd4.17387@pd7urf1no...

A single arm on the rescue ball might have made some sense.


"Yoohoo!" waving arm "Here I am!"


You know what they'd do?
You would be hanging onto the rescue lanyard with that as they reeled
you into the second Shuttle.
And God help you if you let go of it.
The whole thing was another great example of early dead-end Shuttle
technology.

"It's a Rescue Ball!"
"Whats it used for?"
"You can carry astronauts from one Shuttle to a rescue Shuttle with it."
"Can we get another Shuttle up in time to rescue a stranded crew if one
gets marooned in orbit?"
"Hell no, of course not.... but it sends the right message to the public!"

"It's a Emergency Tile Repair Kit!"
"Can it fix damage to the tiles and allow a safe reentry?"
"Hell no...but it sends the right message to the public!"

"It's a Bail-Out Slide Pole!"
"They can escape from the Shuttle with this thing?"
"Well... yeah...for around the last three minutes of the flight if luck
is with them....but it sends the right message to the public!"

"It's a SAFER Suit!"
"And what does it do, pray tell?"
"If a EVAing astronaut floats off, another astronaut can go rescue him!"
"Does it have enough Delta V to do that?"
"Hey look, if it works, it works. If not, then we're only out one extra
astronaut, and he got to die heroically, like in a science fiction
movie...the public will love it!"

"It's a Robotic Flying Camera Ball! AERcam Sprint! It can check out the
underside of the Shuttle for damage once its in orbit!"
"Can it be operated under there?"
"Hell no...but it sends the right message to the public, and it looks
really cool, like that thing that Luke Skywalker did light-saber
practice with in Star Wars...the public will love it! "

The only one of those that possibly panned out was the SAFER suit, and
on Columbia they sure as hell weren't going to send out someone in one
of those to have a peek at the port wing, as they weren't going to be
doing any EVAs on that flight, so why bring one of those along?
Those are only for unexpected emergency situations.

Pat

  #18  
Old December 31st 07, 05:48 AM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Scott Hedrick[_2_]
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Default _really_ strange space suit


"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...
You know what they'd do?
You would be hanging onto the rescue lanyard with that as they reeled you
into the second Shuttle.
And God help you if you let go of it.


I've been playing waaay too much LEGOS Star Wars lately...the thought of
this ball with an arm just makes me...laugh...

And Leia just shakes her little plastic heinie there at the Catina...

"Hey look, if it works, it works. If not, then we're only out one extra
astronaut, and he got to die heroically, like in a science fiction
movie...the public will love it!"


Well, in Liftoff!, a failed rescue attempt gets points even if it's fatal to
the rescuer, usually more than enough to offset the ones lost from the first
bunch of dead astronauts.

Never tried to mount a rescue in BARIS, so I don't know if it works the
same. Can't get BARIS to run on my XP and Vista machines, anyway. Anyone got
a CD copy they can spare?



  #19  
Old January 1st 08, 11:08 AM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Markus Baur[_2_]
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Default _really_ strange space suit

Never tried to mount a rescue in BARIS, so I don't know if it works the
same. Can't get BARIS to run on my XP and Vista machines, anyway. Anyone got
a CD copy they can spare?


isnt it strange that there is STIll interest in BARIS (or a
derivative..) - why does none of the game developers do something
about it ..

servus

markus


  #20  
Old January 1st 08, 11:22 AM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Pat Flannery
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Posts: 18,465
Default _really_ strange space suit



Markus Baur wrote:

isnt it strange that there is STIll interest in BARIS (or a
derivative..) - why does none of the game developers do something
about it ..


Probably the amount of effort needed to make it versus expected profits
from it.
Unlike Halo, it's not going to lend itself to fast-paced violent action.
So today's zero attention span crowd will find it very boring.
Even the Army figured that one out: http://www.goarmy.com/aarmy/
I like this part: "The game is designed to provide an accurate portrayal
of Soldier experiences."
Which means around once for every five hundred times you play you
actually do get your legs blown off for real and then get shipped off to
a really crappy VA hospital where, if you are lucky, they have a Pong
game on the TV to help you relax. ;-)


Pat
 




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