WHAT IT IS

...This is a super-sophisticated spacesuit for survival in conditions of being under the influence of an external aggressive environment...

 WHAT FOR

...The GRIFIN spacesuit was designed for planetary missions and participation in space landing expeditions. It provides maximum manoeuvrability and easy movement in microgravity...

 

WHOM FOR

...A device for survival in aggressive space conditions, either it is armed hostilities or conducting a specific operation in space or another non-atmospheric object...

 

NEW TERMS: armband diagnostic, visor (gunner computer), shockproof gel, isotropic insulating spacesuit, magnetic boots, exoskeleton, aiming camera files, helmet cheek visor, slip control, microgravity, combat port of the right sleeve of the spacesuit, BCS (built-in computerized system )...

 

DESCRIPTION

1. Inspection of the suit according to the instructions: bend the left knee and get a green signal on the icon of the armband diagnostic. Do the same with the right knee, then rotate the body of the suit, then the upper limbs - all gradually, slowly, according to a clear program. All this is necessary for survival...
2. There sounds a click: someone has connected to the outer port of the suit. So, it is an insider, who downloads the status readings about the condition and wounds...
3. A melee weapon is built into the right sleeve of the combat suit. The G ... sa   a handgun is fixed on the folding mount, and in the depth there is a dozen parts, a capsule of a cleaning agent and grease, a cleaning rod and brushes...
4. You don't feel free when you fit into a combat suit. The first part to be put on is something that the grumblers called the "full condom". A thick black suit made of layers of Kevlar, rubber, shockproof gel and sensors that monitor the state of the body. Next, a looser isotropic insulating spacesuit is put on with a layer of self-sealing gel which is able seal holes from a high-speed bullet and cooling the surface when struck by a laser. But all these heavy layers are less intimidating than reinforced armour designed for planetary operations. The military call it "the coffin." The name hints that, if this armour has already been pierced, the paratrooper inside is probably a dead man and it is not worth the trouble to remove him and throw it entirely into the grave. Of course, this is an exaggeration, but the thought that one has to go down in armour, in which it is impossible to move without additional mechanical traction, scares to death. What if the battery runs out? Of course, it's nice to have a muscle-strengthening spacesuit on you, but what do you think?
5. Turn on the magnetic soles of the boots with heel and heel. Magnetic boots. It is necessary to step, and if the legs do not come off the casing and the toes of the boots do not move, something has happened to the magnetic suction cups! Legs don't move. Is slip control configured? Using the tongue on the combat visor of the cheeks, move the setting to the right, adjusting it to your strength. If you have never walked in magnetic boots before, you need to practice. The feeling is strange and incomprehensible - the leg moves freely for most of the step, but as soon as the sole approaches the hull, at a certain critical point it grasps and presses it against the metal...
6. Two assistants dragged a large box with the words “Ceremonial suit" on. They needed a large furniture trolley and a lot of strong words. The armour weighed a hundred pounds even at a quarter of a g. The assistant rattled something on the terminal, and the lock of the box clicked loudly. Inside, the GRIFIN spacesuit lays there, reinforced with a web of elastic straps. First, according to the instructions, you need to remove the helmet and begin to unravel the parts of the suit from the fasteners, folding them on the floor. Next, pull out the right arm of the spacesuit. 10 mm ammunition is attached to the built-in weapon, the sleeve is fully armed. It can be assumed that the ammunition of the spacesuit is designed for an enemy in armour of the same type. Anything that is capable of piercing such a spacesuit can also pierce the ship's hull. By inserting fresh batteries into the back plate and admiring the green light of full charge on the panel, we can state that it takes almost three hours to complete the general assembly and preparation for work. You can do it in two hours, but you need an extra hour for yourself to practice. The red enamel of the camouflage was lined with cracks and scratches, a tiny leak of fluid from the knee reminded of the loss. When the assembled spacesuit is lying on the floor, as if inviting to get inside, for the first time it may seem cramped. You lie down in a coffin! Next, pull out the black overalls from the box, which is worn under the armour. Strip down to your underpants and pull on tight leotard. After that, pull the wires and connect them to sensors on different parts of the body. After being covered from head to toe with a jumpsuit, you must connect the suit itself. Having settled down, slide into the open chest of the spacesuit and down, stuffing your legs up to the thighs in the trousers. The assistant will fasten the chest, then put on and fasten the helmet. Inside they brought the usual roll call of condition sensors. The head will be surrounded by the quietest, almost inaudible hum. An assistant helped to use the micro motors and pumps that moved the muscles of the exoskeleton, it is necessary to freeze. Turning on the external speaker, as well as the combat visor of the helmet cheeks, you need to check the sound and communication. Green light is seen all over the panel. It is necessary to stand up easily, without any effort, and catch the familiar sensation of barely restrained power in all limbs. If you push off the floor more sharply, you can hit your head against the ceiling with a force that will cause serious damage to it. A wave of the hand can throw a heavy bed across the room or break the helper's spine. Therefore, it is necessary to move as carefully as possible...

7. There were the details of the suit on the floor around. The spacesuit had to work hard, and he legally demanded some care because the spacesuit was an extremely complex mechanism and it was fitted exactly to the owner. It was not easy to disassemble it, it required complete concentration. First, it is necessary to carry out prophylaxis, to find even a micro crack, which can give, for example, a weak but continuous leakage of fluid from the knee motor. It's time to start assembling. This is a kind of ritual: the final cleansing before death on the battlefield. Having raised the body of the spacesuit, wipe it thoroughly with a damp cloth, removing the last specks of dust and specks of machine oil. Screwing on the frame of the cladding plate with thousands of dents and scratches on the red enamel, you need to perceive your actions as a ritual. Perhaps a shell made of ceramics, rubber and alloys will preserve the body for eternity...
8. Turn over the frame and work on the back of the spacesuit. A long chink on the enamel can tell you how forcefully it was thrown out in an explosion two steps away. Then pick up a helmet - the memory of the spacesuit keeps a record of the last battle. I didn't have the strength to look...
9. Switch off connection. Click the button on the combat visor of the helmet cheek. It took a minute to synchronize the military video programs and convince the system to switch to legacy de-archiving algorithms. After several false starts, the aiming camera files floated to the screen. Then loop the recording and view. Attach the back armour and proceed to install the wiring and hydraulic system. Finish installing power and main servos. Connect to the brain of the suit and green lights will light up on the hand terminal. The wall screen is ready to read information from the helmet...
10. There was a cleaned and fully charged GRIFIN spacesuit behind. The barrel of the weapon that had just been inserted into its place glittered in the port of the right sleeve...
11. Having turned around, according to the instructions, pull yourself to the spacesuit and sink into it completely. I have to bend, squeezing my legs into the trouser-legs. Then turn on the hermetic sealing and the armour fits easily like a second skin. Having closed the helmet tightly, it is necessary to speak through the external speaker, knowing that the voice in it becomes mechanical and expressionless. Then turn on the magnets on the soles at full power using the tongue on the control panel of the combat visor of the cheek - the so-called "slip control", sticking to the deck. Get ready and turn on the check of the state of the outer systems of the spacesuit - detection sensors. Everything should be green, including the ammunition cartridge counter, which has marked two thousand supplied cartridges...
12. The bomb fell a few meters away. The blast rolled across the surface, the suit screaming in warning. The control display was a Christmas garland of red and green lights. Motion monitoring, which transmitted muscle tension to the spacesuit's servomotors, refused to work. The system started to reboot and at the same time the spacesuit was trying to reformat and run the program at other locations. Before my eyes flashed and faded amber inscription: "Please wait." “The reformat was successful,” the suit said. - Reboot ". I turn on the emergency release, and the armoured spacesuit fell apart. It was a strange sight: the hard layers of armour plates opened up like flower petals and fell off, revealing a woman frozen with closed eyes and open mouth...
13. A rhythmic creak was distinctly heard through the hiss and rumble of reinforced armour. According to the instructions, it is almost always necessary to drown out the diagnostics of the spacesuit in the helmet. So much information comes from it that the bearer of the armour learns about everything in the world - just not about what is in front of him. Now you need to amplify the sound, flip through the pages on the display by blinking and moving your eyes. To understand this procedure: one eye (left) should generally always be closed. A yellow light warns that the left knee traction is running low on hydraulic fluid. Perhaps there was a leak somewhere, but such a small one that the spacesuit does not catch it...
14. In a second the suit spat out a muffled warning: jammers. The top view disappeared - contact with the satellite was interrupted. The vital indicators and the state of equipment of the other members of the group were disconnected: the connection with their suits was cut off. There was also a faint noise of interference from the open communication channel, leaving the fighter in anxious silence. Alternatively, you can control by hands gestures or snuggle up to your comrade's helmet...

CAPABILITIES

1. The suit allows you to go through the bomb crater of a nuclear explosion just a few minutes after the outbreak. It also protects from the heat of the volcano...
2. When checking the jump mode, you need to jump along a long arc, rising at the top point about seven meters above the ground. Visually you should inspect the surface, while the spacesuit, meanwhile, probes everything with radar and electromagnetic sensors, trying to detect all targets. You can trace the slightest movement with a glance and the suit will immediately spot the target with a directing laser. Now it will not lose. Maybe the oncoming thing is jamming the radio waves, but the light reflects as long as it can be seen. The suit will calculate and introduce a distance correction, but the distortion of the trajectory of super-high-speed bullets at a short distance should be quite insignificant. The suit can hold the target with a laser sight, so you don't have to turn around...
3. Automatic control instantly switches the spacesuit to combat mode in the case of a general alarm announcement. The sensor package goes to work, looking out for the slightest sign of hostility and automatically links to one of the satellites for an overhead view. A click is felt: the weapon built into the right elbow pad has switched to the "fire" position...
4. A video archive is installed on the spacesuit, and therefore it is possible to read data...
5. The suit warned that it was being targeted and switched the setting, turning the invisible infrared beam into faint stripes. Half a dozen of them were banging against his chest, coming from the compact black handguns in the hands of the guards lined up against the far wall. We must pay tribute to the guards: they did not back down. BCS (built-in computerized system) processed data on weapons and reported that they all are armed with five-millimetre semi-automatic machines with a standard charge of three hundred live bullets and a rate of fire of ten live bullets per second. Unless they stocked up with armour-piercing bullets - which are unlikely given the hull of the ship right behind them - the suit rated the danger at a lower level...
6. The spacesuit began to calculate the probability of survival for each of them. Without looking, he shut up the program. He preferred not to know. Pressing the communication key in the helmet with his chin, he said...

 

FEATURES

1. The training and the spacesuit transform the wearer into an effective killing machine. As soon as the fingers touched the trigger of the built-in weapon, a stream of ten-millimetre armour-piercing bullets rushed into the enemy at a speed of one thousand meters per second. Fifty bullets were fired in an instant. The creature moved relatively slowly, in a straight line, and was a human-sized target. A computer gunner (visor) in a spacesuit allows you to hit a soccer ball, even if it was flying at supersonic speed. Each bullet fired at the monster hit the target...
2. In case of injury or a direct hit, the beeps of the suit's emergency system are heard. Coloured lights begin to flash in front of the face: the computer sends signals, but it is difficult to read them due to injury or pain shock. A reboot occurs and the alarm beeps continuously. As a rule, a shockproof gel becomes a liquid state...
3. In case of minor injury, when it is possible to move, it is necessary to accustom the body to pain by injecting reagents. There is a nanosecond delay between the movement of muscles and the reaction of the suit!!! Therefore, the wearer of the spacesuit in it feels like in a dream, when you want to step separately, and separately you walk. Many hours of training almost erase this feeling, but every time you put on a spacesuit it takes a few minutes to get comfortable...
4. Going ahead you can give the command to the visor of the spacesuit to count the number of moving objects and mark each as an enemy. The visor will independently outline the target: for example, the closest one. According to the instructions, you need to transfer control of the group to yourself, choose a target in the rear-guard and give an increase. When the small figure at the gunpoint enlarges, the visor will automatically bring the object closer...
5. Medical technicians, in order not to waste time on complications, can remove it not according to the rules, but separate it at the seams and joints. This method helps to quickly free the wounded from four hundred kilos of armour, but destroys the armour irrevocably...
6. Pain may cause darken in the eyes - it is necessary to press the extreme right button with the tongue on the combat visor of the cheek, and the spacesuit will inject a full set of amphetamines and painkillers. The pain will recede and become bearable...
7. Inspect the bulky suit. It is completely covered with a thick layer of a substance that resembles rubber. Perhaps a knife or a bullet it won't stop. The air supply is placed in the cylinder under the anti-radiation layer and bulges out with a large awkward hump on the back. With difficulty pulling the spacesuit towards us, we can make sure that we will carry a solid mass on ourselves...

 

PROBABILITY OF FUTURE EVENTS

...In the last decade of the XXI century, various companies are intensively preparing for the realization of the long-standing dream of mankind - interplanetary travel. So, Elon Musk declares his intentions to send the first people to Mars this decade. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos promises regular tourist flights to Earth orbit and the Moon, while NASA is exploring deep space. Most recently, communication with Voyager 2 was established. If all these bold plans are destined to come true, a natural question arises: are the existing spacesuits perfect enough? And what are the famous facts from science fiction works, let's figure it out...

A spacesuit is not just a suit. It's like a miniature spaceship that follows the shape of the body. And he appeared long before the first flights into space. At the beginning of the twentieth century, scientists already knew that conditions in space and on other planets are very different from those on Earth. For future space flights, it was necessary to come up with a suit that would protect a person from the effects of a deadly external environment.

The ancient people, putting on animal skins, laid the foundations for the expansion of the species Homo sapiens. Instead of spending millions of years on evolutionary changes in the body, humans began to use equipment to survive in adverse conditions. The approach turned out to be successful - people were able to dive under water, rise into the air and in the 20th century - go into space. And now the spacesuit is probably the most advanced "clothing" for the most unfavourable conditions, which has already gone a long way...

1775 - French abbot-mathematician Jean-Baptiste de La Chappelle proposed the name "spacesuit". There was no talk of space flights at the end of the 18th century - the scientist suggested calling this diving equipment. The word itself, which can be translated from Greek roughly as "boat-man", suddenly entered the Russian language with the advent of the space age. In English, the spacesuit remains a "space suit"...

Early 19th century - mankind learned to work under water. A relatively simple technology - a fabric impregnated with rubber and an air pump on the surface - made it possible to create a complete suit for a long and effective stay under water. As they evolved, diving suits were even divided into hard and soft, like spacesuits, but this is a false analogy. The fact is that with increasing depth pressure increases, a hard diving suit protects from it, but a soft one does not. Space suits work in an external vacuum, and their similar separation is due to completely different reasons...

1898 - Astronomer, populariser and writer Garrett Service commissioned by the New York Journal to write a sequel to Wells' War of the Worlds, Edison's Conquest of Mars. In the story, humans build spaceships and retaliate against aggressive Martians. To service Earth's ships in space, a "pressurized suit" was required. The first spacesuit appeared in science fiction 63 years before manned space flight. Unfortunately, Garrett made several common inaccuracies in the description of the suit at once - the design was based on soft diving suits and did not take into account the real physics of vacuum...

 1920s - English physiologist John Holden published a series of articles proposing the use of diving suits to protect balloonists. He built a prototype of such a spacesuit for the American aeronaut Mark Ridge. Mark Ridge tested the suit in a pressure chamber at a pressure corresponding to an altitude of 25.6 kilometres. However, balloons for flying in the stratosphere have always been expensive, and Ridge was unable to raise funds to set a world record using Holden's suit...

1929 - Fictional character Buck Rogers wore a suit that vaguely resembled a diving suit. The concept of a completely transparent helmet was later used in the Apollo spacesuits - the sealed (inner) helmet had only a small layer of fabric on the back of the head...

30s of the twentieth century - aviation storms new frontiers. The speed, range and altitude were increasing. And it turned out that without additional equipment the problems for pilots begin already from about 4.5 km of altitude - a drop in atmospheric pressure and a decrease in the partial (separately taken) oxygen pressure lead to hypoxia and the loss of the ability to control the apparatus. Oxygen masks made it possible to rise higher, but calculations showed that at an altitude of 15 km, the pressure of carbon dioxide emitted by the lungs will exceed the ambient pressure and make breathing impossible and above 19 km all biological fluids will begin to boil in the body. The need arose for suits that not only provide breathable air, but provide the pressure at which the body can live and function. The idea to use the developments of diving suits was obvious; therefore in the photographs of the 30s high-rise suits have the same hard helmet and shirt front...

1931 - 1940 - in the Soviet Union, the engineer of the Institute of Aviation Medicine Evgeny Chertovsky was engaged in spacesuits for high-altitude flights. He designed seven models of hermetic suits. All of them were far from perfect, but the researcher was the first in the world to solve the problem associated with mobility. After pressurizing the spacesuit, the pilot needed a lot of effort to simply bend the limb, so the engineer used hinges in the Ch-2 model. Model Ch-3, created in 1936, contained almost all the elements that are in a modern space suit, including absorbent underwear. The Ch-3 model was tested on the TB-3 heavy bomber on May 19, 1937 at an altitude of 7-10 km. The work was carried out until 1940, and the discovered problems were gradually solved in new modifications - in Ch-5 (1938) it became possible to fully work with gloves...

1935 - Aviation pioneer Wiley Post managed to climb up to about 15 km in a spacesuit developed with the participation of Russell Colley of the Goodrich Company...

1936 - The science fiction film "Space Flight" was released. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky participated in the creation of it. The movie about the upcoming conquest of the moon captivated the young engineers of the Central Aero hydrodynamic Institute (CAHI) that they began to work actively on prototypes of space suits. The first sample under the SK- CAHI -1 index was designed manufactured and tested in 1937...

1940 - CAHI engineers created the pre-war Soviet spacesuit SK- CAHI -8. It was tested on the I-153 "Chaika" (Seagull) fighter. The suit really gave the impression of something extra-terrestrial: the upper and lower parts were connected using a belt connector; shoulder joints appeared to facilitate mobility; the shell consisted of two layers of rubberized fabric!!! In SK-7 (1940) they managed to eliminate fogging of the windshield. There were even experimental high-altitude jumps in a spacesuit with a parachute. On the second model, an autonomous regeneration system was installed, designed for six hours of continuous operation...

October 1952 - engineer Alexander Boyko created a special workshop at the plant number 918 in Tomilino near Moscow. After the war, the initiative passed to the Flight Research Institute (FRI). Experts were instructed to create suits for aviation pilots, which quickly conquered new heights and speeds. Now this enterprise is known as NPP "Zvezda". It was there that the spacesuit for Yuri Gagarin was created...

1953 - high-altitude spacesuits VSS-05, VS-06 were created. In the USSR, the Flight Research Institute named after V.I. Gromov, who created the VSS-01.02.03.04 spacesuits, and in 1952, on the basis of the production enterprise No. 1 of the Central Warehouse of the Ministry of Aviation Industry, an experimental plant No 918 which now is called Zvezda (Star)...

1950s - The Vorkuta spacesuit (lead designer A.I.Boyko) was developed for the Su-9 interceptor. It was produced in a small series for aviation, and when the development of a spacesuit for space flights began in 1959, it was Vorkuta that became the basic model. Its feature was two layers - power and sealed instead of one of the rubberized fabric in previous models. This allowed the use of more suitable materials - lavsan for the load-bearing layer, spongy and sheet rubber for the sealed layer. And in general, Yuri Gagarin in the first historical flight had as many as eight layers of clothing - underwear, three layers of a heat-protective suit, one of which was a ventilation system, a spacesuit lining, an airtight layer, a power layer and an upper orange shell so that the astronaut was easier to spot after landing. Another feature was the system of automatic slamming of the helmet in case of depressurization...

Late 1950s - Soviet design engineers began designing the first Vostok (East) spacecraft. It was suggested that a person would fly into space without a spacesuit. The pilot was to be placed in a sealed container that would be fired from the descent vehicle before landing. However, such a scheme turned out to be cumbersome and required lengthy tests, so in August 1960, Sergey Korolev's bureau redesigned the internal layout of the Vostok, replacing the container with an ejection seat. Accordingly, in order to protect the future cosmonaut in the event of a depressurization, it was necessary to create quickly a suitable suit. There was no time left to dock the spacesuit with the on-board systems, so it was decided to make a life support system that could be placed directly in the chair. The spacesuit, designated SK-1, was based on the Vorkuta high-altitude suit, which was intended for the pilots of the Su-9 interceptor. Only the helmet had to be completely redone. For example, a special mechanism was installed in it; it was controlled by a pressure sensor: if it fell sharply, the mechanism instantly slammed the transparent visor. Each spacesuit was made to measure. By the time of the first space flight, it was not possible to "sheathe" the entire cosmonaut corps, which at that time consisted of twenty people. Therefore, at first they singled out six who showed the best level of preparation, and then - the three "leaders": Yuri Gagarin, German Titov and Grigory Nelyubov. The spacesuits were made first of all for them...

1959 - In the United States, spacesuits were developed by several organizations. For the first spacecraft, Mercury, NASA chose the Mark IV spacesuit, which was the fruit of the long-term work of the US Navy. It was produced by the Goodrich company (remember the experiments of the 30s above, it has been working in this area for several decades). The spacesuit was successfully used in high-altitude flights of F-4, F-6, F-8, A-5 aircraft, and in 1959 it set a record for the height of rise of 30 km on the F-4. For the space program, the suits were slightly modified - the dark grey colour of the outer shell and boots was replaced with a shiny one to ensure thermal conditions, the life support system was transferred to a closed cycle, gloves were modified to make it more convenient to press the buttons, and a medical telemetry connector was added. Unlike the Mark IV, the Mercury suits were made to measure, which allowed the straps to be removed for fit. NASA ordered 21 spacesuits for the program, three for an astronaut...

1961 - During unmanned test launches of the "Vostok" spacecraft, there was a humanoid mannequin in a spacesuit, nicknamed "Ivan Ivanovich"on board, along with the experimental mongrels. A cage with mice and guinea pigs was installed in its chest. Under the transparent visor of the helmet, they put a sign with the inscription "Model" so that casual witnesses of the landing would not mistake it for an alien invasion. Thus, one of the SK-1 spacesuits entered orbit before the cosmonauts. The SK-1 spacesuit was used in five manned flights of the Vostok spacecraft. Only for the flight of Vostok-6, with Valentina Tereshkova in the cockpit of it was created the SK-2 spacesuit, taking into account the peculiarities of the female anatomy...

June 3, 1965 - Gemini 4 pilot Edward White made a spacewalk in a G4C suit. But by that time he was not the first - two and a half months before White, Alexei Leonov set off on a free flight next to the Voskhod-2 (Sunrise-2) spacecraft. The Voskhod ships were created to achieve space records. In particular, a crew of three cosmonauts flew into space on Voskhod-1 for the first time - for this, the ejection seat was removed from the spherical descent vehicle, and the cosmonauts themselves went into flight without spacesuits. The Voskhod-2 spacecraft was being prepared for the exit of one of the crew members into open space, and here one could not do without a sealed suit. The Berkut (Golden eagle) spacesuit was specially developed for the historic flight. Unlike the SK-1, the new suit had a second hermetic shell, a helmet with a light filter, and a backpack with oxygen cylinders, the supply of which was enough for 45 minutes. In addition, the astronaut was connected to the spacecraft by a seven-meter halyard, which included a shock-absorbing device, a steel cable, an emergency oxygen supply hose and electrical wires...

1965 - The Voskhod-2 spacecraft was launched, and at the beginning of the second orbit, Alexei Leonov left it. Immediately, the crew commander Pavel Belyaev solemnly announced to the whole world: "Attention! The man went out into outer space!" The image of the astronaut hovering against the background of the Earth was broadcast on all TV channels. Leonov was in the void for 23 minutes 41 seconds. The first dangerous incident happened with Alexei Leonov. After completing the program, the astronaut was unable to return to the spacecraft due to the fact that his spacesuit was inflated. Having made several attempts to enter the airlock with feet forward, Leonov decided to turn around. At the same time, he reduced the level of excess pressure in the suit to a critical one, which allowed him to squeeze into the airlock...

1967 - The flights of the new Soviet Soyuz (Union) spacecraft began. They were supposed to become the main vehicle for the creation of long-term orbital stations, so the potential time that a person had to spend outside the ship inevitably increased...

1967 - a fire on the Apollo 1 spacecraft, which led to the death of three astronauts (including the aforementioned Edward White and Virgil Grissom), the spacesuit was modified to the fire-resistant version of A7L ...

1969 - astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin set foot on the moon wearing A7L suits. The A7L was designed in one piece, covering the torso and limbs, with flexible joints made of rubber. The metal rings on the collar and sleeve cuffs were designed to fit sealed gloves and a "helmet-aquarium". They had a vertical "zipper" that ran from the neck to the groin. The A7L provided astronauts with four hours of work on the moon. Just in case there was also a reserve life support unit in the knapsack, designed for half an hour...

1969 - In the "Yastreb" (Hawks) suits, cosmonauts Alexei Eliseev and Yevgeny Khrunov went from ship to ship during the flights of Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5. The "Yastreb" spacesuit was basically similar to the "Berkut" that was used on the "Voskhod-2" ship. The differences were in the life support system: now the breathing mixture circulated inside the spacesuit in a closed circuit, where it was cleaned of carbon dioxide and harmful impurities, fed with oxygen and cooled...

1970-1980s - Russian cosmonauts use the Sokol (Falcon) KV-2 and Orlan-MK (Bald eagle) spacesuits (for spacewalk)...

1972 - Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent the longest time on the lunar surface: they spent 22 hours and 4 minutes in three trips in December. Very different spacesuits were required on the moon than on Earth's orbit. The spacesuit must be completely autonomous and allow a person to work outside the ship for several hours. It was supposed to provide protection from micrometeorites and, most importantly, from overheating in direct sunlight, because the landing was planned on lunar days. In addition, NASA has built a special tilting stand to find out how reduced gravity affects the movement of astronauts. It turned out that the nature of walking changes dramatically...

1973 - Rescue of the first American space station "Skylab". Here is how it was. Soon after the launch, a heat-insulating screen that protects against small meteorites from the station tore off. The temperature inside the station began to rise dangerously (up to + 38 ° C). The outer side is also heated up to + 80 ° C. The operation in such conditions was impossible. A replacement screen was urgently needed, and NASA decided to build a kind of umbrella. Eileen Baker from the General Electric contractor was called in to help. "It was 22 feet by 24 feet (about 6.7 by 7.3 m), this piece of material," says Herb Baker, son of Eileen, who himself worked for 42 years at NASA. "They were very thin layers of aluminium and laminated nylon, plus another thin layer of nylon. One side was bright orange, the other was silver. "They called this structure an umbrella and it really looked like an umbrella. It was folded and then deployed through the airlock." (The Umbrella was brought to the station along with the first expedition.) The Umbrella, as a replacement for the heat-insulating screen, did an excellent job. And the photograph of Eileen at the sewing machine, surrounded by waves of heat-shielding material held by several people, still hangs on NASA Johnson Space Research Centre...

1973 - The first flight in Sokol spacesuits was carried out on Soyuz-12. Since then, cosmonauts, setting off on flights on the domestic Soyuz spacecraft, have always used versions of this successful spacesuit. It is noteworthy that the Sokol-KV2 spacesuits were purchased by Chinese trade representatives, after which China got its own space suit, called, like the manned spacecraft, Shenzhou and it was very similar to the Russian model. In such a spacesuit, the first astronaut (taikonaut) Yang Liwei went into orbit...

1973 - Modifications of the Sokol spacesuit are used in the USSR. It is curious that it has a design detail that is akin to a spacesuit with diving suits - instead of a sealed zipper, an opening on the chest is used, through which the spacesuit is put on. It is used in China's space program with minimal changes under the name Shenzhou. In the US, the shuttles used three different models. The first experimental flights used a modified spacesuit from the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft called SEES. Then, when the shuttle was declared operational, the astronauts flew without spacesuits at all. After the “Challenger” disaster, not even a spacesuit was assembled from the available components, but a high-altitude compensating LES suit. They used inflatable bags instead of tubes and bands, and an inflated collar around the neck to seal the helmet. Starting with STS-65, LES was replaced by the ACES spacesuit, developed by David Clark Company and is a direct descendant of the Gemini and SR-71 spacesuits...

1977 - An appropriate protective suit was also needed for a spacewalk. It was "Orlan" - an autonomous semi-rigid spacesuit, created on the basis of the lunar "Gyrfalcon (Krechet)". The Orlan also had to get in through the door in the back. In addition, the creators of these spacesuits managed to make them universal: now the legs and sleeves were adjusted to the astronaut's height. Orlan-D was first tested in open space on the Salyut-6 orbital station. Since then, these suits in various modifications have been used on Salyut, the Mir complex and the International Space Station (ISS). Thanks to the spacesuit, astronauts can keep in touch with each other, with the station itself and with the Earth...

1977 - The spacesuit is being modernized, it is more and more comfortable to stay in it and you can work longer. The cosmonauts use the same spacesuit, bringing only gloves. China first acquired ready-made “Orlan ", then developed a minimally different "Fengtien"...

1981 - The Extravehicular Mobility Unit, a portable life support system, is presented. But it became outdate quickly. An important role in the new prototype "NGLS" is played by the improved mechanisms of the oxygen pressure regulator and carbon dioxide neutralizer. For comparison, the old system has only two options for setting the oxygen pressure level, while the new mechanism has more than 80 variations that can be adjusted to the ambient conditions. In addition, NGLS offers a recompression function for the treatment of decompression sickness right inside the suit...

1983 - The EMU spacesuit was created. It consists of a hard top and soft pant. Like Orlan, EMU can be reused by different astronauts. You can safely work in space for seven hours in it, another half hour is provided by the backup life support system. The state of the spacesuit is monitored by a special microprocessor system that warns the astronaut if something goes wrong. The first EMU went into orbit on the Challenger spacecraft. The EMU spacesuit consists of the following parts: MAG (collects the astronaut's urine), LCVG (removes excess heat while walking in space), EEH (provides communication and bio instruments), CCA (microphone and headphones for ties), LTA (lower suit, pants, knee pads, greaves and boots), HUT (upper suit, fiberglass hard shell that supports multiple structures: arms, torso, helmet, life support backpack and control module) , sleeves, two pairs of gloves (inner and outer), helmet, "EVA" (protection against bright sunlight), "IDB" (inner suit drinking bag), "PLSS" (primary life support system: oxygen, energy, carbon dioxide cleaning, cooling, water, radio and warning system), "SOP" (reserve oxygen), "DCM" (PLSS control module). Incredible...

1984 - The EMU (Extravehicular Mobility Unit) spacesuit is presented. While the first spacesuits were made entirely of soft tissue, modern versions combine soft and hard components to provide support, mobility and comfort (although the latter is debatable). The spacesuit material itself is made in 13 layers: two layers of internal cooling, two compression layers, eight layers of thermal protection from micrometeorites and one outer layer. These layers include the following materials: knitted nylon, spandex, urethane nylon, Dacron, neoprene nylon, Mylar, gortex, Kevlar (from which body armour is made) and nomex. All layers are sewn and bonded together to form a one-piece cover. Also, unlike the first spacesuits, which were sewn individually for each cosmonaut, modern EMUs have components of various sizes that will suit everyone...

In 1991 an incident with damage to the spacesuit occurred during the flight of the shuttle Atlantis (mission STS-37). A small rod pierced the glove of astronaut Jerry Ross. By a lucky coincidence, no depressurization occurred - the rod got stuck and "sealed" the hole. The puncture was not even noticed until the astronauts returned to the ship and began checking the suits...

The beginning of the XXI century - the Bio Suit project was created under the leadership of Dave Newman (who is a professor at MIT and a former deputy director of NASA) and astronaut Deffrey Hoffman (who flew into space 5 times). It was also attended by the physicist Chris Carr (who calculates the biomechanics of the human body's motion to the microgravity of Mars), the Soldier Nanotechnologies laboratory (which was engaged in the search for materials necessary for the spacesuit), the design agency Trotti & Associates and the manufacturer of sports protection Dainese (who development of the appearance for the spacesuit). The main feature of the new spacesuit is a power frame made of nickel-titanium threads with memory effect. Thanks to them and the zippers, a person can put on such a spacesuit in just a couple of minutes and without assistance. And when it is already put on, you just need to supply power to the spacesuit connectors, and it will tightly squeeze the body. The base of the suit is made up of two layers of metallized spandex, under which is placed a layer of foam or gel thermal insulator, which carries out thermoregulation of the body (compare this with the 13 layers of the "lunar" A7L spacesuit). To manufacture such a spacesuit requires laser scanning of the body and 3D modeling to fit the spacesuit to the shape of the body. And for production, 340 meters of power wire and about 140 thousand seams are required. In 2007 the team managed to achieve a pressure inside the suit in the amount of 20% of atmospheric pressure, and the suit itself was included in the list of the 100 most significant inventions of mankind according to The Time Magazine. At the moment, the pressure has already reached 25% of atmospheric pressure (which is already enough for breathing pure oxygen), and the team's goal is to obtain an indicator of 30%. Boots and gloves are a special problem when creating such a crimped spacesuit, so it is planned to make them and the Bio Suit helmet inflatable, just like in the old spacesuits. But in the future they are also planning to be replaced with a crimp structure. Unlike most traditional spacesuits, Bio Suit consists of only two layers of spandex and nylon, and the inner surface is covered with a special thermal gel that regulates the temperature inside the spacesuit depending on external conditions. The main difference between Bio Suit lies in its concept: instead of an external pressure regulation system, these suits use elastic cords that squeeze the astronaut's body and do not interfere with comfortable movement. The crimping pressure is regulated by a special system that adapts to the conditions in the environment. Since there is no need for a complex and massive pressure regulation system, the weight of the portable life support system is significantly reduced...

 2001 - The longest spacewalk by Americans James Voss and Susan Helms, lasting 8 hours 56 minutes...

2006 - During the spacewalk of the space shuttle "Discovery" (flight STS-121), a special winch detached from Pierce Sellers's spacesuit, which prevented the astronaut from flying into space. Noticing the problem in time, Sellers and his partner managed to reattach the device, and the work ended safely...

2008 - During the flight of the "Shenzhou-7" spacecraft, the taikonaut Zhai Zhigang in the "Feitian" spacesuit made a spacewalk. It is characteristic that when he left he was insured by his partner Liu Bomin in the Orlan-M spacesuit bought from Russia...

2012 - NASA introduced a new type of spacesuit "Z-1". Modelled after Buzz Lightyear's spacesuit from Toy Story, this suit is due to go into production in 2015 and will have a number of pleasing qualities and functions. First, the bubble-shaped helmet provides a huge field of view compared to previous options. The new design of the shoulders of the suit provides more freedom of movement of the hands. In the back of the suit there is a hatch through which the astronaut crawls when he dresses. That is, rather, it is a spacesuit like a transport, which takes in a passenger, and not an astronaut puts on all this. Secondly, the Z-1 spacesuit is equally suitable for both spacewalk and movement on the planet's surface (unlike everything worn by the ISS crew). Thirdly, thanks to the latest developments, the need to overload the spacesuit with cans of lithium hydroxide, which absorbs the carbon dioxide exhaled by humans, has significantly dropped. Well, the Z-1 could be a great replacement for the EMU and send the old spacesuit into retirement...

2013 - A total of 362 spacewalks were recorded with a total duration of 1981 hours 51 minutes (82.5 days, almost three months). And yet there are records here. Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyov has been the absolute record holder for the number of hours spent in outer space for many years - he made 16 exits with a total duration of 78 hours 46 minutes. In second place is an American Michael Lopez-Alegria; he made 10 exits with a total duration of 67 hours 40 minutes...

2017 - SpaceX spacesuit prototype is presented. Besides the futuristic look, ease of use was one of the important goals. When astronauts are seated in chairs, their suits are connected to and part of the spacecraft's avionics and electronics. The suits receive chilled air, creating a comfortable temperature inside, and also provide communication and hearing protection (although, for some reason, during the flight to the ISS, the pilots used a wired microphone for some reason). Like the Dragon transporter itself, the crew suits were created exclusively by SpaceX at its headquarters in Hawthorne, California, where the launch vehicle and cargo capsule were developed. The spacesuit is created individually for each member of the space mission and is tailored to his physique. To fly into orbit at a speed of Mach 30, the suits must be sealed and have a life support system, but additional safety measures did not prevent SpaceX from maintaining a balance of aesthetics and functionality. Their suits vaguely resemble those of the stormtroopers of John Mollo, costume designer for the Star Wars film franchise. Most likely, SpaceX suits are not suitable for work in outer space, their main

…to be continued…

 POTENTIAL VALIDITY OF AN INNOVATIVE ARTIFACT

50% ≤

 RESOURCE

[The Internet]

 OUR ANNOTATION

In our opinion it is interesting that we can consider the fact that in this novel, and later in the feature film about the main character - Rico and his friends, the combat protective suit in which they are fighting is shown in detail. This suit is endowed with significant capabilities and is described in detail that may be of interest to design engineers. And if "under the microscope" you look at other TV series or science fiction books, for example, the series "Dune", "Mass Effect", Space cruiser "Galaxy", the series "Expansion", the movie "The Martian" and many other facts - images of ancient artefacts - on ancient frescoes, pyramids, paintings by ancient artists, then there is an understanding of the importance of describing this innovative artefact...

...Friends, what do you think?

 

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