From fantasy to reality
It is logical that the first spacesuit appeared in science fiction, 63 years before a man's flight into space. In 1898, the astronomer, popularizer and writer Garrett Service wrote, on the order of the New York Journal, the continuation of Wells' War of the Worlds, the Edison Conquest of Mars. According to the plot, earthlings build spaceships and strike back at aggressive Martians. And to service the earthās ships in space, a āsealed suitā was required.
Illustration from the book "Edison's Conquest of Mars"
Unfortunately, Garrett made several very common mistakes in the description of the suit - the design was based on soft diving suits and did not take into account the real physics of vacuum.
Invented in 1929, the character Buck Rogers also wore a suit remotely resembling a diving suit. It is funny that the concept of a completely transparent helmet was later used in Apollo suits - the airtight (internal) helmet had only a small layer of fabric on the back of the head.
On the left is a modern replica of the original figure of Buck Rogers, on the right is the Apollo suit
The armored cars were invented not yesterday. Back in the 30s of the last century, fiction magazines drew almost naked women flying in a vacuum, despite the complete lack of realism.
In 1936, the film āSpace Flightā was released on Soviet screens, whose consultant was Tsiolkovsky himself. But even here, in suits for walking on the moon, descendants of diving suits are easily guessed.
Frame from the film "Space Flight"
And the first realistic description of the spacesuit in science fiction was made, it seems, by Robert Heinlein. In āI have a spacesuit, I am ready to travel,ā he described a spacesuit with hinges that do not swell in a vacuum, plausible life-support systems and thermoregulation. But Heinlein worked as an aviation engineer and was engaged in high-altitude suits, so in a sense, reality overtook science fiction.
Underwater and in the air
Historically, spacesuits grew out of the sequence ādiving suitsā -> āaviation high-altitude suitsā -> āspace suitsā.
Mankind learned to work under water in the early 19th century. Relatively simple technologies - rubber-soaked fabric and an air pump on the surface made it possible to create a full-fledged suit for a long and effective stay under water. While developing, 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 against it, and a soft one does not. Space suits work under conditions of an external vacuum, and their similar separation is due to completely different reasons.
Actively developing in the 30s, aviation stormed new frontiers. Increased speed, range and altitude. And it turned out that without additional equipment, problems for pilots begin already at about 4.5 km altitude - a drop in atmospheric pressure and a decrease in the partial (individual) oxygen pressure lead to hypoxia and loss of ability to control the device. Oxygen masks allowed to rise higher, but calculations showed that from 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. There was a need for costumes, not just supplying breathable air, but providing pressure at which the body can live and function. The idea was obvious to use the achievements of diving suits, therefore, in the photographs of the 30s, high-altitude suits have the same hard hat and shirt shirt.
Wiley Post High Altitude Costume at the National Museum of Aeronautics and Astronautics
The aviation pioneer Wiley Post in 1935 managed to climb to about 15 km in a spacesuit designed with the participation of Russell Collie from the Goodrich Company.
But the engineers were waiting for a new surprise. The diving suit works in conditions when the external pressure increases with increasing depth. And at a height it decreases, and the costumes began to inflate. I had to come up with special joints of constant volume so that you could just bend your arm. The first to do this was in the USSR, where an engineering group led by E.E. Chertovsky had been developing high-rise suits since 1931. Two versions were too incomplete to be tested in real conditions, but the third, Ch-3, was checked on a TB-3 bomber, climbing 7-10 km in 1937. The work was carried out until 1940, and in the new modifications the problems discovered were gradually solved - in the Ch-5 (1938) it became possible to fully work with gloves on.
Suit Ch-6 (1939)
In parallel, since 1937, work on the creation of spacesuits was carried out at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI). The spacesuit SK-4 was tested in flight in 1938, according to the results, new versions were developed, and in SK-7 (1940) they managed to eliminate fogging of the windshield. Even experimental high-altitude parachute jumps were carried out.
Test Engineer Ya.M. Malt maker in a suit SK-5
Most likely, the expansion of the meaning of the word āspacesuitā refers precisely to this period. Formed from Greek roots and literally translated as āman-boatā, it belonged to diving suits at the beginning of the century. They are called āspacesuitsā today, but the word without clarification now means more space technology.
The outbreak of World War II did not stop the development of spacesuits at all, but not one country achieved much success.
Born of necessity
Jet aircraft, which appeared at the end of World War II, began to develop very rapidly in the postwar period. The cars flew higher and an unpleasant problem was discovered - the cockpit of the aircraft could be sealed and maintain overpressure in it, but in the event of a sudden depressurization, the pilot had no chance to survive. I had to develop high-altitude suits. On both sides of the ocean, the engineering problem was solved simply: the pilotās body was squeezed with inflatable bags, and in the second type of suits, tubes connected along the limbs were connected by ribbons running in the figure of eight. In the event of depressurization, air was supplied to the tubes, they expanded, and the tapes pulled the pilot's body together. And on his head was a tight helmet, into which oxygen was supplied under pressure.
Inflated altitude-compensating suit in a pressure chamber. Pressure corresponds to an altitude of 19 km, and water boils at body temperature
The idea turned out to be working, but it paid off only in emergency conditions - the sensations are unpleasant, you canāt squeeze the whole body, and the risk of sudden loss of consciousness due to a drop in blood pressure remains. A partial solution was found in the combination of tubes and inflatable bags, which additionally squeezed the body, and, for example, in the USA the MC-3 suit was used in aviation for a long time and successfully, and with minimal changes was used for experimental high-altitude flights on stratostats and jumps from them. In such suits, testers in pressure chambers could work in conditions of almost complete vacuum, but this was not enough for all tasks: when even faster and higher-altitude aircraft appeared (X-15 or SR-71 rocket plane), the pilot's equipment also had to be protected from extreme temperatures and air pressure when ejecting at high speed, with which altitude-compensating suits coped worse. Therefore, engineers and pilots who could argue that a high-altitude-compensating suit or suit are better suited for military aviation (as history has shown, both options were used), advocated spacesuits for rocket aircraft and space.
In the USSR, after the war, the Flight Research Institute im. Gromova, who created the BCC-01,02,03,04 spacesuits, and in 1952, pilot plant No. 918 was organized on the basis of production facility No. 1 of the Central Warehouse of the Ministry of Aviation Industry for work on ejected seats, air-to-air refueling systems and spacesuits, which is now carries the name of NPP Zvezda. Already in 1953, high-altitude spacesuits VSS-05, VS-06 were created.
BCC-04, photo of NPP Zvezda
In the 1950s, several other models were developed at the plant, including the Vorkuta spacesuit (lead designer A.I. Boyko) 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 acted as the base model. Its feature was two layers - power and airtight instead of one of the rubberized fabrics in previous models. This allowed the use of more suitable materials - lavsan for the power layer, sponge and sheet rubber for the airtight layer. But in general, on Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin in the first historical flight there were already eight layers of clothing - underwear, three layers of a heat-insulating suit, in one of which was a ventilation system, a lining of the spacesuit, an airtight layer, a power layer and an upper orange shell so that the astronaut it was easier to notice after landing. Another feature was the system of automatic slamming of the helmet during depressurization.
Suit SK-1 at the Museum of Cosmonautics
For the Vostok spacecraft, the SK-2 spacesuit was also developed for female astronauts, taking into account the peculiarities of female anatomy.
In the USA, several organizations developed spacesuits. For the first spacecraft "Mercury", NASA chose the Mark IV suit, which was the fruit of the long work of the US Navy. It was produced by Goodrich (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 a lift height of 30 km on F-4. For the space program, the spacesuits were slightly modified - the dark gray color of the outer shell and boot was replaced by a brilliant one to ensure thermal conditions, the life support system was switched to a closed loop, the gloves were modified to make it more convenient to press the buttons, and the medical telemetry connector was added. Unlike Mark IV, Mercury costumes were custom-made, which made it possible to remove the belts to fit. For the program, NASA ordered 21 spacesuits, three pieces each for an astronaut.
Astronaut Gordon Cooper in a spacesuit
The spaceships of the first spaceships created a new type of space suits - rescue (IVA in English terminology) space suits. Such a spacesuit is not intended to go into outer space or work on the surface of the moon, it is worn before launch, landing or docking and protects in the event of a depressurization of the spacecraft.
Into outer space
The next task that the engineers had to solve was to create a spacesuit for working in outer space. In the USSR, SK-1 was taken as a basis: for greater reliability, a second sealed layer was added, a sunscreen was installed in the helmet, the top layer of orange fabric was replaced with multilayer thermal insulation, and the closed life support system was made open again - the exhaled air was dumped overboard. And the designation āGolden Eagleā marked the beginning of the tradition of naming Soviet and Russian spacesuits in honor of birds of prey. Not without problems, but on the whole successfully, Alexei Leonov became the first person to make spacewalks.
The first extra-ship activity in history
Subsequently, for the VVD on the first Soyuz ships, the hawk suit was used, taking into account the comments on the Golden Eagle.
In the United States, a spacesuit was used as a base, which was used in the X-15 rocket aircraft program and was developed by order of the US Air Force. By design, it did not differ much from the Soviet one, there was also a rubber sealed layer, a power layer of special Link-net fabric, several layers of nylon and an outer layer of Nomex fabric (meta-aramid, withstands heating up to 400 Ā° C).
Ed White, the first American to spacewalk
An interesting feature was that the spacesuit for Gemini was released in several versions - the original G3C, the G4C VKD version, soft helmet modifications for long-term flight without the G5C VKD, and this spacesuit was also used at the beginning of the Apollo program under the index A1C.
G5c
The āGolden Eagleā of Leonov and the G4C became the second type of spacesuit - the VKD spacesuits (in English EVA terminology).
Moon walks
A suit for the moon has its own characteristics. On VKD, legs are at best used for fixing on a boom, and most of the time they look like a real atavism of a ācosmic manā. On the surface of the celestial body, one must actively move them, and this should be convenient. So the lunar spacesuits on both sides of the ocean were no longer modified flight equipment. The funniest story happened in the USA, where the ILC company, which produces lingerie, went around the competition of the āmastodonsā mentioned above, offering the most convenient solution. The secret was in innovative hinges - corrugated rubber, tightened with wire, made it easy to bend limbs even in a vacuum. In the photo below they are visible on the left, black on the elbows. The spacesuit managed to undergo modernization, the A7LB version had additional joints on the neck and in the belt, for more convenient control of the lunar rover.
A7L spacesuit
In the USSR, they went the other way and made the semi-rigid construction āKrechetā. A feature of the Soviet landing plan was the need to provide the opportunity to go 5 km to the backup ship in case of problems with the main one. Therefore, the spacesuit had greater autonomy, 10 hours, and was tested for the possibility of making a long transition.
"Gyrfalcon" in the museum, the orange design is not a moon walker, but a stand
After the first experiments, the spacesuits continued to develop.
IVA
Since 1973, modifications of the Sokol spacesuit have been used in the USSR / Russia. It is curious that he has a construction detail that is related to a suit with diving suits - instead of an airtight zipper, he uses the sweep on his chest through which the suit is worn (clearly visible in the photo below). Under the name "Shenzhou" with minimal modifications, it is used in the space program of China.
Falcon and Shenzhou
In the USA, as many as three different models were used on the shuttles. In the first experimental flights under the name SEES, a modified spacesuit from the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft was used. Then, when the shuttle was declared operational, 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. Instead of tubes and tapes, inflatable bags were used there, and a collar was inflated around the neck to seal the helmet. Starting with the STS-65, LES was replaced with an ACES suit, developed by David Clark Company, and a direct descendant of the suits for Gemini and SR-71.
From left to right SEES, LES, ACES
EVA
The new models for VCD also solved the problem of creating a universal design that can be used by different people so as not to carry a new spacesuit to the orbital station each time. An Orlan spacesuit is used on this side of the ocean. It is a semi-rigid structure (torso is a rigid cuirass) with a door in the back of the spacesuit (legacy of the "Krechet"). Since 1977, the spacesuit has been modernized, it is more convenient to be in it and you can work longer. Astronauts use the same spacesuit, bringing with them only gloves. China first acquired the finished Eagles, then developed the minimally different Feitian.
From left to right, Orlan and Feitian
In the USA, they also created a semi-rigid EMU spacesuit, but it is divided into a larger number of parts - the upper part of the torso, lower, limbs, helmet, backpack. Versatility is ensured by the selection of components of a suitable size for a particular astronaut. Below is the canonical photo of the āgolden timeā of the shuttles in the 80s, when flying in a spacesuit without a leash was still considered an acceptable risk.
The debate about whose suit is better can go on for a long time and without much success, both models have their pros and cons. For example, āOrlanā is lighter, but has a shorter service life (EMU returns to the ground for repair after 25 VKD, āOrlanā is thrown out after 12).
New ships
Active work on the creation of new manned ships gave rise to new models of spacesuits. When creating the costume for Crew Dragon, it was rumored that the main requirement was that the spacesuit ālook coolā. Judging by the published photographs, it turned out to be realized, it looks really stylish.
The model for the Boeing ship looks more baggy, but, for example, a soft helmet may be more convenient.
More recently, spacesuits for the Orion spacecraft and the Artemis lunar program were presented. The OCSS IVA spacesuit is an evolution of ACES, which was used on shuttles, and the xEMU EVA model combines EMU modularity with the experience of Apollo spacesuits, because it will be designed for spacewalks and moon walks.
And last summer we presented the IVA spacesuit āSokol-Mā, the main difference of which will be hermetic lightning instead of plowing. Now it can be worn twice as fast, and the developer promises that the new model can be used for at least 10 flights.
Sokol-M at MAKS-2019
Prospects
Work on spacesuits does not stop, and now engineers are experimenting with a variety of designs.
Creative rethinking of aircraft altitude-compensating suits are crimping suits. In them, the tissue directly adjoins the body and provides the necessary pressure for breathing. Theoretically, such suits should be easier and more convenient, but it is very difficult to compress the entire body evenly and to ensure the absence of pain and bruising in a person. Itās also difficult to put them on and take them off for a long time. The Bio-Suit model is being developed on a proactive basis and is gradually being tested with an increasing pressure difference.
Bio suit
ILC Dover offers two models to replace EMU. The toughest Mark III has the advantage that it can be worn immediately, without breathing oxygen for several hours, washing nitrogen out of the blood. A completely soft I-Suit is developed not only for spacewalks, but also for walks in other celestial bodies.
From left to right: Mark III, I-Suit
For NASA, Z-series spacesuits are created, also characterized by increased pressure. An interesting feature of the models is a convex helmet that improves visibility, and the entrance from the back, as in the "Orlan".
Z-1 and Z-2
Entrance from the back is convenient for the Suitport concept - the spacesuit is connected to the rover with its back, virtually eliminating the need for a special lock chamber.
In parallel with companies like ILC Dover or the David Clark Company, which has been working in suits for decades, new players are entering the market. For example, the company Final Frontier Design, whose lead engineer is Nikolai Moiseev, who has worked for many years at the Zvezda Research and Production Enterprise, this year tested prototype spacesuits at the Canadian Space Agency.
Conclusion
The ideal spacesuit has already been invented in science fiction. Vladimir Vasilyevās āBlack Relayā describes a āsuitā consisting of a tiny generator of a force field and a life support system that protects against vacuum, temperature and radiation. I fastened the box to my belt, spent five minutes checking it and walk yourself through space even in shorts and a T-shirt. But before that, of course, technologies still have to develop and develop.
Lecture on the material:
The material was prepared for the journal "Universe, Space, Time." Published in the original edition.
PS A small ad. This week I will be in Minsk at SQA Days-26, on November 13, I will read the lecture āSpace talesā in the Minsk planetarium.