Apollo/Skylab spacesuit: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Apollo 11 space suit.jpg|thumb|[[Neil Armstrong]] described his Apollo 11 A7L suit as "tough, reliable and almost cuddly."<ref>{{cite news|title=Science Friday Archives: How to Dress for Space Travel |url=http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201103256 |newspaper=NPR |date=March 25, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111010145433/http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201103256 |archive-date=October 10, 2011 }}</ref>]]

The '''Apollo/Skylab space suit''' (sometimes called the '''Apollo 11 Spacesuit''' due to the fact thatbecause it was most known for being used in the [[Apollo 11|Apollo 11 Mission]]) is a class of [[space suit]]s used in [[Apollo program|Apollo]] and [[Skylab]] missions. The names for both the Apollo and Skylab space suits were Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU).<ref name="us">{{cite book |title= US Spacesuits |author1=Kenneth S. Thomas |author2=Harold J. McMann |year= 2006 |publisher= Praxis Publishing Ltd. |___location= Chichester, UK |isbn= 0-387-27919-9 | pages = 428–435 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cdO2-4szcdgC }}</ref> The Apollo EMUs consisted of a Pressure Suit Assembly (PSA) aka "suit" and a [[Primary life support system|Portable Life Support System]] (PLSS) that was more commonly called the "backpack".<ref name="us1">{{cite book |title= US Spacesuits |author1=Kenneth S. Thomas |author2=Harold J. McMann |year= 2006 |publisher= Praxis Publishing Ltd. |___location= Chichester, UK |isbn= 0-387-27919-9 | pages = 428–433 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cdO2-4szcdgC }}</ref> The A7L was the PSA model used on the Apollo 7 through 14 missions.<ref name="us2">{{cite book |title= US Spacesuits |author1=Kenneth S. Thomas |author2=Harold J. McMann |year= 2006 |publisher= Praxis Publishing Ltd. |___location= Chichester, UK |isbn= 0-387-27919-9 | pages = 428–429 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cdO2-4szcdgC }}</ref>

The subsequent Apollo 15-17 lunar missions,<ref name="us3">{{cite book |title= US Spacesuits |author1=Kenneth S. Thomas |author2=Harold J. McMann |year= 2006 |publisher= Praxis Publishing Ltd. |___location= Chichester, UK |isbn= 0-387-27919-9 | pages = 430–431 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cdO2-4szcdgC }}</ref> Skylab,<ref name="us4">{{cite book |title= US Spacesuits |author1=Kenneth S. Thomas |author2=Harold J. McMann |year= 2006 |publisher= Praxis Publishing Ltd. |___location= Chichester, UK |isbn= 0-387-27919-9 | pages = 432–433 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cdO2-4szcdgC }}</ref> and [[Apollo–Soyuz]] used A7LB pressure suits.<ref name="us5">{{cite book |title= US Spacesuits |author1=Kenneth S. Thomas |author2=Harold J. McMann |year= 2006 |publisher= Praxis Publishing Ltd. |___location= Chichester, UK |isbn= 0-387-27919-9 | pages = 434–435 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cdO2-4szcdgC }}</ref> Additionally, these pressure suits varied by program usage. For the Skylab EMU, NASA elected to use an umbilical life support system named the Astronaut Life Support Assembly.

The suits used during lunar EVAs had a weight of about {{cvt|81.6|kg|lbs}}, and under lunar surface gravity a weight equivalent to {{cvt|13.6|kg|lbs}}.<ref name="Kluger 2018 z081">{{cite webmagazine | last=Kluger | first=Jeffrey | title=How Neil Armstrong's Moon Spacesuit Was Preserved for Centuries to Come | websitemagazine=Time | date=October 12, 2018 | url=https://time.com/5422609/armstrong-spacesuit-smithsonian/ | access-date=November 29, 2023}}</ref> The low surface gravity and suit pressurization put considerable constraints on its use.<ref name="Nast 2013 v237">{{cite webmagazine | title=How Do You Pick Up Something on the Moon? | websitemagazine=WIRED | date=December 9, 2013 | url=https://www.wired.com/2013/12/how-do-you-pick-up-something-on-the-moon/ | access-date=November 29, 2023}}</ref>

== Basic design <!--DO NOT capitalize the word "design" here -- see the Manual of Style---> ==

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===Portable Life Support System===

At the beginning of the Apollo spacesuit competition, no one knew how the life support would attach to the suit, how the controls needed to be arranged, or what amount of life support was needed. What was known was that in ten months, the Portable Life Support System, aka "backpack", needed to be completed to support complete suit-system testing before the end of the twelfth month. Before the spacesuit contract was awarded, the requirement for normal life support per hour almost doubled. At this point, a maximum hourly metabolic energy expenditure requirement was added, which was over three times the original requirement.<ref name=tjtm34-39>{{cite book |title= The Journey To Moonwalking |author=Kenneth S. Thomas |year= 2017 |publisher= Curtis Press |___location= Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, UK |isbn= 9-780993-400223 | pages = 34–39 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cdO2-4szcdgC }}</ref>

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====Constant Wear Garment====

The CMP wore a simpler cotton fabric union suit called the Constant Wear Garment (CWG) underneath the TSLA instead of the water cooled Liquid Cooling Garment. His cooling came directly from the flow of oxygen into his suit via an umbilical from the spacecraft environmental control system. When not performing lunar EVA's, the LMP and CDR also wore a CWG instead of the LCG.

== Apollo 15-17, Skylab and ASTP Spacesuits ==