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Mars Space Suit Trials in North Dakota
AbsoluteZero writes to tell us Space.com is reporting that a new spacesuit prototype being designed for Mars exploration is currently being tested in North Dakota. From the article: "The Mars spacesuit is the culmination of 14 months of work by faculty and students with the North Dakota Space Grant Consortium, which received $100,000 from NASA to develop the prototype. The local public is invited to view the Mars spacesuit in action on Sat. May 6, weather permitting, at its North Dakota test site."
"They are only pressurising this suit to 1 PSI, about a quarter of what is required."
This raises questions about "ballooning". When a suit is pressurised, it balloons out and soon our intrepid space traveller is walking and looking like the Michelin man. This can of course be solved by making the suit out of hard materials, but probably increases complexity.
I do agree with parent, that making it as simple as possible should be a priority. Those things will have to be maintained with simple tools and thus should be made foolproof.
Some say he is made with ascii, others that he is eyeballed daily by millions. All we know is, he is known as the Sig
US Forest Service
STOP
THE AREA AHEAD HAS THE WORST WEATHER IN AMERICA. MANY HAVE DIED THERE FROM EXPOSURE, EVEN IN THE SUMMER. TURN BACK NOW IF THE WEATHER IS BAD.
Mount Washington has hurricane force winds and sub-freezing temperatures _every month of the year_. The highest wind speed over land ever recorded was measured from the summit at 231MPH before the anemometer was destroyed. The number of days of hurricane force winds average 110 days/year. In January, that means every 3 out of 4 days.
Deaths: http://www.mountwashington.com/deaths/index.html
North Dakota doesn't even come close.
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BMO