Space Suit safety equipment?

If an astronaut gets hit in the foot by a micrometer, does he:

1) Inflate the emergency tourniquet to cut off leakage from the foot?

or,

2) Use the few seconds he has left to say goodbye to his family?

Since no astronaut has ever died during a space walk, I was wondering what
kind of safety equipment is incorporated into the suit. Having
a massive leak in an appendage of the suit should not be fatal. Arms,
legs, hands and feet can be considered somewhat expendable when the
alternative is death.

Does the suit have emergency tourniquets on all appendages?

--
Craig Fink
Courtesy E-Mail Welcome @

If an astronaut gets hit in the foot by a micrometer, does he:

What I want to know is what is that micrometer doing floating around
in space station orbit? I guess I can see how a micrometer is likely
to be too small to be tracked, but it was awfully careless of whoever
was working in space and dropped that thing.

Now, if it was a barometer, and the goal was to measure the height of
a building, that's a solved problem:
http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/barometer.asp
But measuring the size of the space station with a micrometer? Hmm,
could be a whole new field of investigation.

On Fri, 03 Feb 2006 08:52:26 -0500, Jim Kingdon wrote:

If an astronaut gets hit in the foot by a micrometer, does he:

What I want to know is what is that micrometer doing floating around
in space station orbit? I guess I can see how a micrometer is likely
to be too small to be tracked, but it was awfully careless of whoever
was working in space and dropped that thing.

Now, if it was a barometer, and the goal was to measure the height of
a building, that's a solved problem:
http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/barometer.asp
But measuring the size of the space station with a micrometer? Hmm,
could be a whole new field of investigation.

lol


--
Craig Fink
Courtesy E-Mail Welcome @

"Craig Fink" wrote in message
news
If an astronaut gets hit in the foot by a micrometer, does he:

1) Inflate the emergency tourniquet to cut off leakage from the foot?

or,

2) Use the few seconds he has left to say goodbye to his family?


Since the micrometeor is likely to be very small, he'd end up with a pinhole
in the suit, and his foot. I'm guessing his response would he "Ouch!
Something just put a hole in my suit!", followed by, "I've got to get back
to he airlock." The suits have a reserve of O2, which should allow the
astronaut to get to an airlock before the suit actually loses pressure.

If the shuttle gets a hole in it, the plan is to land as quickly as
possible. Again, the air supply is sized such that a small hole isn't much
of a problem.

Since no astronaut has ever died during a space walk, I was wondering what
kind of safety equipment is incorporated into the suit. Having
a massive leak in an appendage of the suit should not be fatal. Arms,
legs, hands and feet can be considered somewhat expendable when the
alternative is death.

Does the suit have emergency tourniquets on all appendages?

It's extremely unlikely that a micrometeorite would cause a "massive" leak.
Such a thing has not occurred in the history of manned spaceflight to any
astronaut, spaceship, or space station.

Even the Progress/Mir collision wasn't that big of a leak. The hatch to the
leaking module was able to be sealed off in time, despite the
astronauts/cosmonauts having to disconnect and/or cut a lot of wires and
hoses that ran through the hatch. The ISS CBM is designed such that you can
immediately close the hatches without disconnecting any of the wires or
hoses that tie the modules together.

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

On Fri, 03 Feb 2006 11:26:17 -0500, Jeff Findley wrote:


"Craig Fink" wrote in message
news
If an astronaut gets hit in the foot by a micrometer, does he:

1) Inflate the emergency tourniquet to cut off leakage from the foot?

or,

2) Use the few seconds he has left to say goodbye to his family?


Since the micrometeor is likely to be very small, he'd end up with a
pinhole in the suit, and his foot. I'm guessing his response would he
"Ouch! Something just put a hole in my suit!", followed by, "I've got to
get back to he airlock." The suits have a reserve of O2, which should
allow the astronaut to get to an airlock before the suit actually loses
pressure.

If the shuttle gets a hole in it, the plan is to land as quickly as
possible. Again, the air supply is sized such that a small hole isn't
much of a problem.

Since no astronaut has ever died during a space walk, I was wondering
what kind of safety equipment is incorporated into the suit. Having a
massive leak in an appendage of the suit should not be fatal. Arms,
legs, hands and feet can be considered somewhat expendable when the
alternative is death.

Does the suit have emergency tourniquets on all appendages?

It's extremely unlikely that a micrometeorite would cause a "massive"
leak. Such a thing has not occurred in the history of manned spaceflight
to any astronaut, spaceship, or space station.

Even the Progress/Mir collision wasn't that big of a leak. The hatch to
the leaking module was able to be sealed off in time, despite the
astronauts/cosmonauts having to disconnect and/or cut a lot of wires and
hoses that ran through the hatch. The ISS CBM is designed such that you
can immediately close the hatches without disconnecting any of the wires
or hoses that tie the modules together.



Micrometeor is just an example, maybe a pinhole on entry into the suit and
a half dollar on exiting the suit. It could be something else entirely
that causes a massive leak in an appendage of the suit.

Emergency tourniquets would compartmentalize the space suit.

Like your example of the Mir collision, closing the hatch to the
noncritical compartment to save the rest of the space station. Cutting off
blood flow to the foot and more importantly air flow to the foot so
that the astronaut can make it back to the airlock. Appendages are
noncritical, head and torso are.

--
Craig Fink
Courtesy E-Mail Welcome @

"Craig Fink" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 03 Feb 2006 11:26:17 -0500, Jeff Findley wrote:


"Craig Fink" wrote in message
news
If an astronaut gets hit in the foot by a micrometer, does he:

1) Inflate the emergency tourniquet to cut off leakage from the foot?
2) Use the few seconds he has left to say goodbye to his family?

Since the micrometeor is likely to be very small, he'd end up with a
pinhole in the suit, and his foot. I'm guessing his response would he

Micrometeor is just an example, maybe a pinhole on entry into the suit and
a half dollar on exiting the suit. It could be something else entirely
that causes a massive leak in an appendage of the suit.

well, you do realize that the suits are only pressurized to about 4psi?

Gemini used 2psi as a "safe level" when de-suiting from spacewalks.

there is a pressure regulator on suits to maintain the pressure.

2-4 psi is not that high a pressure, and vacuum will not suck you inside out
like in the movies.

Emergency tourniquets would compartmentalize the space suit.

yeah, but tourniquets never worked well, and have been discouraged by
most(if not all) medical officals.

in such an accident, the best thing for the astronaut to do is to first,
stop spinning. second, clamp hands over hole(s), third, call for rescue if
he cant use a hand to pull himself in with his tether.

but what really woul happen is (bang!) "OW!!!(grabs hole in leg) "OH
SHI!!!!!!" and makes the fastest return and reentry to space vehicle in
recorded history.

On Fri, 03 Feb 2006 11:29:55 -0600, Tater Schuld wrote:


"Craig Fink" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 03 Feb 2006 11:26:17 -0500, Jeff Findley wrote:


"Craig Fink" wrote in message
news If an astronaut gets hit in the foot by a micrometer, does he:

1) Inflate the emergency tourniquet to cut off leakage from the foot?
2) Use the few seconds he has left to say goodbye to his family?

Since the micrometeor is likely to be very small, he'd end up with a
pinhole in the suit, and his foot. I'm guessing his response would he

Micrometeor is just an example, maybe a pinhole on entry into the suit and
a half dollar on exiting the suit. It could be something else entirely
that causes a massive leak in an appendage of the suit.

well, you do realize that the suits are only pressurized to about 4psi?

Gemini used 2psi as a "safe level" when de-suiting from spacewalks.

there is a pressure regulator on suits to maintain the pressure.

2-4 psi is not that high a pressure, and vacuum will not suck you inside out
like in the movies.

Maybe just regulate the air flow rate to the appendages to keep it
below the maximum resupply flow rate from the regulator. Essentially
design in a maximum (kept to a minimum) flow rate to appendages, not
tourniquet.

Maybe they've already designed it into the current suits?


Emergency tourniquets would compartmentalize the space suit.

yeah, but tourniquets never worked well, and have been discouraged by
most(if not all) medical officals.

in such an accident, the best thing for the astronaut to do is to first,
stop spinning. second, clamp hands over hole(s), third, call for rescue
if he cant use a hand to pull himself in with his tether.

He quickly ran out of hands.


but what really woul happen is (bang!) "OW!!!(grabs hole in leg) "OH
SHI!!!!!!" and makes the fastest return and reentry to space vehicle in
recorded history.

15 minutes from one end of the space station to the other? An hour buggy
ride on the moon?

--
Craig Fink
Courtesy E-Mail Welcome @

"Craig Fink" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 03 Feb 2006 11:29:55 -0600, Tater Schuld wrote:
"Craig Fink" wrote in message
On Fri, 03 Feb 2006 11:26:17 -0500, Jeff Findley wrote:
"Craig Fink" wrote in message
If an astronaut gets hit in the foot by a micrometer, does he:

1) Inflate the emergency tourniquet to cut off leakage from the foot?
2) Use the few seconds he has left to say goodbye to his family?

Micrometeor is just an example, maybe a pinhole on entry into the suit
and
a half dollar on exiting the suit. It could be something else entirely
that causes a massive leak in an appendage of the suit.

well, you do realize that the suits are only pressurized to about 4psi?
Gemini used 2psi as a "safe level" when de-suiting from spacewalks.
there is a pressure regulator on suits to maintain the pressure.
2-4 psi is not that high a pressure, and vacuum will not suck you inside
out
like in the movies.

Maybe just regulate the air flow rate to the appendages to keep it
below the maximum resupply flow rate from the regulator. Essentially
design in a maximum (kept to a minimum) flow rate to appendages, not
tourniquet.

Maybe they've already designed it into the current suits?

I believe so. how long it would last is another issue.

in such an accident, the best thing for the astronaut to do is to first,
stop spinning. second, clamp hands over hole(s), third, call for rescue
if he cant use a hand to pull himself in with his tether.

He quickly ran out of hands.

yeah, hopefully he has a teamate out with him. standard operating procedure
for spacewalks further than X feet from airlock?

but what really woul happen is (bang!) "OW!!!(grabs hole in leg) "OH
SHI!!!!!!" and makes the fastest return and reentry to space vehicle in
recorded history.

15 minutes from one end of the space station to the other? An hour buggy
ride on the moon?

Another thing. didnt the astronauts have a roll of tape with them? a quick
leaky patch (or even a tourniquette) would give them a fighting chance.

"Craig Fink" wrote in message
news
If an astronaut gets hit in the foot by a micrometer, does he:

1) Inflate the emergency tourniquet to cut off leakage from the foot?
2) Use the few seconds he has left to say goodbye to his family?

after reading through the thread, I think that the cost of lifting the extra
life-saving equipment outweighed the risk of such a strike.

while micrometeors are in the thousands, the likelihood of getting struck by
one is abotu equal to getting hit by lightning in bclear skies. twice. while
saying "may lightning strike me if..."

On Fri, 03 Feb 2006 12:30:51 -0600, Tater Schuld wrote:


"Craig Fink" wrote in message
news
If an astronaut gets hit in the foot by a micrometer, does he:

1) Inflate the emergency tourniquet to cut off leakage from the foot?
2) Use the few seconds he has left to say goodbye to his family?

after reading through the thread, I think that the cost of lifting the extra
life-saving equipment outweighed the risk of such a strike.

http://groups.google.com/group/sci.s...b4f9abc570efc8

while micrometeors are in the thousands, the likelihood of getting struck by
one is abotu equal to getting hit by lightning in bclear skies. twice. while
saying "may lightning strike me if..."

Ok, something a little more probable.

The astronaut accidentally rips his glove in half.

Does the suit have some safety equipment to keep the oxygen leak rate from
the arm of the suit below the replenishment rate of the oxygen regulator?

Or, http://groups.google.com/group/sci.s...002ab945e0730b

--
Craig Fink
Courtesy E-Mail Welcome @