Science: Semi-Space Suit

One of the toughest problems of space navigation is to dress spacemen so they can live and function outside the controlled environment of their cabins. Even for high-altitude airplane pilots, protective suits are essential. Above 63,000 ft. (where the blood boils), the air is as bad as a vacuum for any pilot who bails out into it. Last week the Air Force showed off a “full pressure suit” that is an advance over its predecessors. But it would not by any means permit its wearer to take a stroll on the moon.

Developed by the David Clark Co. of Worcester, Mass., the suit has a loose outside layer of shiny, aluminized fabric to protect the inner layers and to reflect solar or A-bomb heat. Inside is a coverall of special, airproofed nylon material carefully fitted to the individual wearer’s body. In its normal, pressureless state, it is flexible and reasonably comfortable (see cut). Cold air or oxygen can be pumped through it to cool the pilot if his cabin gets too hot.

Unless something goes wrong, the suit stays relaxed, but if the cabin loses its pressure at, say, 150,000 ft., an automatic valve shoots oxygen into the suit from the airplane’s supply. The inner suit blows up like a man-shaped balloon. Complicated pressure-and temperature-regulating gadgets go into action, surrounding the pilot with an environment in which he can stay alive in spite of the near vacuum that has developed in the damaged cabin. He has at least a chance to fly the airplane down to livable air.

If the airplane is seriously damaged or if something has happened to its oxygen supply, the pilot must bail out. When he cuts loose, the quick-thinking suit switches to a bottle of oxygen in the parachute pack and keeps the man alive on the long fall toward earth.

The suit has what the Air Force calls “get-me-down capability.” Something much better will be needed for exploring the moon or for climbing around, science-fiction fashion, outside a spaceship or inhabited satellite. The present suit has no joints in its arms or legs, and so it has little flexibility when inflated. Since it is meant to be worn for short periods only, there are no provisions for taking food, and no latrine facilities. Little attempt has been made to protect the wearer against the fierce temperature effects of empty space. If he were exposed to full sunlight in a vacuum, he would probably fry on one side and freeze solid on the other.