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Spacesuit Problems Delay ISS Repair Spacewalk
Ars Technica reports that the next planned spacewalk in the continuing repairs of the International Space Station's ammonia pump has been delayed, because of problems with the spacesuit worn by astronaut Rick Mastracchio. From the article: "According to Deutsche Welle, the problem is with how the sublimator (a cooling unit) in Mastracchio's suit operated when entering ISS airlock. NASA said the question is whether water entered the sublimator at that time. 'During repressurization of the station's airlock following the spacewalk, a spacesuit configuration issue put the suit Mastracchio was wearing in question for the next excursion,' NASA said in a statement. Delaying the next steps of the valve replacement from Monday until Tuesday will give NASA time to address the issue. Mastracchio is scheduled to wear a backup suit and needs this time to have it resized."
They should have built simpler, more reliable suits.
Learn to love Alaska
Pop divas have 'em and NASA astronauts have 'em. The difference is that after such an incident in outer space, the astronauts start worrying about not being cool enough, but with the entertainment chicks that type of worry generally precedes the accident.
These suits are meant to keep the wearer alive and somewhat comfortable in some rather extreme conditions - zero g, zero pressure, exposure to radiation temperatures ranging from 4 K to several hundred K. They are encountering some issues with control of the water cooling system, and perhaps some condensation. They need to be understood and dealt with, but all in all they are the nature of the beast.
HA HA - CAPTCHA is "earthly"
Someone has to be working on gelfields. Don't make invent it myself, lazy bastards.
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The Sartorial Tragedy! We must send a tuxedo.
"to have it resized." by whom?
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Slashdotters are clever and generally well informed, but this is way out of your league.
I'm trying to moderate today but the fact is that none of you know anything about space suits.
Consider yourselves modded down one point.
For many years, many well trained people have devoted time, energy and tons of money to devise a better space suit. It's hard to imagine even a very clever reader here having anything worth contributing to the issue. Please move on to a story where your comments will be competent.
...omphaloskepsis often...
http://www.spaceflight101.com/iss-expedition-38-us-eva-25-updates.html
Consider how often, in book and film and TV, our heroes just "suit up and go for a walk". No big deal, just get dressed. From Robert Heinlein's scenes of combat suited soldiers preparing for a drop in "Starship Troopers", more like cleaning their wiper blades than tuning up their car; Space Hulk terminator armor through lots of movies since, suits aren't much more inconvenient, and mecha - hah! just hop in the chair, click on the four-points, and drive away.
Yet in real life we have seen that even enclosed pilot flight gear needs more complexity, and the balloon jump within the atmosphere wasn't exactly simple. The comfort we normal passengers experience on an airplane, with shirtsleeve environment and acceptable noise level, shows just how much detail has been considered by others - and the fact that we ride in calm equanimity shows how little we consider those 1 in a million events like a rock being in the way.
Why is there no remote manipulator robot to do this? Is the goal here to test space suits or maintain a space station?
The space station should have the most advanced remote manipulator system available. Deep-sea work is not done by guys in complex suits, it is done by remotely controlled manipulator robots. The continued dependence on space suits for basic construction/repair/maintenence operation just seems like a bad idea given current remote maniplulation technology.