Last June, the American space agency (NASA) was very scared. During an EVA, an extra-vehicular outing, two astronauts, in the vacuum of space, experienced one of the most stressful moments of their lives. Tracy Dyson notably commented on the situation live on the NASA broadcast, exclaiming “there is water everywhere”.
His suit was suffering from a leak in its water circuit as well as a problem with its cooling unit. Although the problem is impressive, this is not NASA’s first attempt. The American space agency has already faced wetsuits with leaks in April 2022.
Recurring accidents
Astronauts Raja Chari and German Matthias Maurer notably had the bitter experience of a water leak directly into Maurer’s helmet. While on an extra-vehicular outing together to do work on the ISS, Maurer, for whom it was his first spacewalk, saw drops of water and mist on his visor at the end of his outing. .
The mission was then aborted as quickly as possible, as was already the case in 2013 for NASA astronaut Luca Parmitano. He too had been the victim of a leak in his water circuit at head level. These leaks, although very slight, can have catastrophic consequences for astronauts.
In a completely waterproof suit, where movements are very complicated, a water leak can lead, in the worst case, to the astronaut’s drowning. During the 2013 incident with Luca Parmitano, nearly 1.5 liters of water was found in his helmet. A huge amount, so much so that Parmitano had difficulty breathing.
Old suits
These incidents, which are far from being the only ones, demonstrate one thing: NASA’s spacesuits are too worn out. Used for almost 40 years, it is urgent to replace them to avoid problems of this type. A spacesuit is not, contrary to the collective imagination, a sort of white padded exoskeleton, which blocks astronauts like knights in armor.
It is above all a technological gem, capable of recreating atmospheric pressure in the vacuum of space. The suit is the astronaut’s last defense against the void. Without a suit, his survival is only a few seconds. Thanks to it, he can spend hours working outside the ISS, in a unique environment.
But for this, the combination must constantly fight against 3 scourges. The first is the pressure difference. The second concerns the cooling of the suit. With a 37°C body inside, it could quickly become a furnace.
Finally, the last important point in the design of a suit concerns resistance to UV rays and other solar radiation. Much more important in space than on Earth, these rays can be deadly in the long term, facilitating the development of cancers and other diseases of this type.
New combinations are coming
Aware of the problem with its suits, built in the 1970s, NASA placed an order with 2 private manufacturers for new suits. The Axiom company recently presented its future suit, built in collaboration with the luxury house Prada.
For its part, Collins Aerospace, which received $1.75 billion to build these suits, has still not delivered a single copy to the American space agency. The latter would however like to test the combinations in the ISS before using them on the Moon, when it returns to our satellite in 2026.
In the meantime, NASA claims to have resolved the problem on its old spacesuits. New spacewalks are planned for the beginning of 2025.
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