lew (11/30/82)
Inspired by the net discussion, I have been reading "Suiting up for Space, the Evolution of the Space Suit" by Lloyd Malan; I'm about 2/3 finished. It has an excellent history of early efforts, revealing that all the suggestions made on the net were being actively explored in the late forties. The partial pressure suit, which David Smith has described, was more advanced than the full pressure suit through the fifties. Everybody wanted a full pressure suit but the mobility and ventilation problems were very hard to solve. I realized from the illustrations that the partial pressure suit was familiar to me from many illustrations of pilots standing next to their aircraft. These suits are more impressive looking than the full pressure suits of the sixties, which look baggy when uninflated. The outstanding pioneer of the partial pressure suit was Dr. James P. Henry, who put in many hours in pressure chambers. An incident is described in which his hand swelled up like balloon at an equivalent altitude of 58,000 ft. He concluded that this was due to water vapor in the tissues since the condition reversed with no ill effects. Note that this was under conditions where the ambient pressure was marginally below water vapor pressure. Later tests showed that one could survive with a partial pressure suit (with gloves!) at 106,000 feet. The suit was never considered suitable for routine use in vacuum conditions. There is an illustration of an advanced "mechanical restraint" suit, developed around 1960 by Hans Mauch, which leaves most of the body at low gas pressure, effectively using the skin as a bladder. This suit may have been alluded to in the net.space article "Nonairtight Pressure suits". I don't no what became of this line of development, although the author does mention that Mauch's efforts influenced the design of the Mercury pressure suit. The author quotes a first hand description of a decompression incident in which the subject's face plate blew off at 70,000 feet (equivalent.) The subject loss consciousness immediately. He reported hearing a sound like "zzzzzzzzzzit", and the next thing he knew he was being revived after emergency repressurization. The author goes on to state, "I have been tested in altitude chambers to 47,000 feet at least five times. I can assure the reader that gases in an unprotected body expand swiftly and painfully." The book also contains a long description of Eugene Cernan's experience with his EVA. It is quoted from an anonymous NASA doctor. It contains the statement "A leak in one of the gaskets around his wrist could have killed him." I think Boebert's recollection of a gloveless EVA is ludicrous, as is Keith Lynch's suggestion of lunar "streaking". Granted, the body would not explode like a bomb in a vacuum, but it would still experience multiple fatal catastrophes. I still maintain that "Dave's" suitless EVA in 2001 is a gross impossibility. Lew Mammel, Jr. ihuxr!lew