The history of the cosmonaut's spacesuit. What space suits will look like in the future

A spacesuit is not just a suit. It is a spaceship that follows the shape of the body. And he appeared long before the first flights into space. At the beginning of the 20th century, scientists already knew that conditions in space and on other planets are very different from those on Earth. For future space flights, it was necessary to come up with a suit that would protect a person from the effects of a deadly external environment.

A spacesuit is a miracle of technology, a space station in miniature ... It seems to you that the spacesuit is overcrowded, like a handbag, but in fact everything is made so compact that it is simply beautiful ... In general, my spacesuit looked like a first-class car, and my helmet - for Swiss watches.
Robert Heinlein "I have a spacesuit - ready to travel"

Spacesuit forerunners

The name "spacesuit" comes from the French word proposed in 1775 by the abbot-mathematician Jean-Baptiste de La Chapelle. Naturally, there was no question of space flights at the end of the 18th century - the scientist suggested calling this diving equipment. The word itself, which can be translated from Greek roughly as "boat-man", suddenly entered the Russian language with the advent of the space age. In English, the spacesuit remains a "space suit".

Jean-Baptiste de La Chapelle's diving suits.

The higher a person climbed, the more the need for a suit that would help him take another step towards the sky grew. If an oxygen mask and warm clothes are enough at an altitude of six to seven kilometers, then after the ten-kilometer mark, the pressure drops so much that the lungs cease to absorb oxygen. To survive in such conditions, you need a sealed cabin and a compensating suit, which, when depressurized, compresses the human body, for a while replacing it with external pressure.

However, if you go even higher, then this painful procedure will not help either: the pilot will die from oxygen starvation and decompression disorders. The only solution is to make a completely sealed spacesuit, in which the internal pressure is maintained at a sufficient level (usually at least 40% of atmospheric pressure, which corresponds to an altitude of seven kilometers). But here, too, there are enough problems: an inflated spacesuit makes it difficult to move, it is almost impossible to perform precise manipulations in it.

In the Soviet Union, the engineer of the Institute of Aviation Medicine Yevgeny Chertovsky was engaged in spacesuits for high-altitude flights. Between 1931 and 1940, he designed seven models of hermetic suits. All of them were far from perfect, but Devil's was the first in the world to solve the problem of mobility. After pressurizing the spacesuit, the pilot needed a lot of effort to simply bend the limb, so the engineer used hinges in the Ch-2 model. Model Ch-3, created in 1936, contained almost all the elements that are in a modern space suit, including absorbent underwear. Ch-3 was tested on the TB-3 heavy bomber on May 19, 1937.

The first high-altitude spacesuits of the USSR: Ch-3 (1936) and SK-TsAGI-5 (1940)

The suit really gave the impression of something extraterrestrial: the upper and lower parts were connected using a belt connector; shoulder joints appeared to facilitate mobility; the shell consisted of two layers of rubberized fabric. On the second model, an autonomous regeneration system was installed, designed for six hours of continuous operation. In 1940, based on the experience gained, TsAGI engineers created the last pre-war Soviet spacesuit SK-TsAGI-8. It was tested on the I-153 "Chaika" fighter.

After the war, the initiative passed to the Flight Research Institute (LII). Its specialists were instructed to create suits for aviation pilots, which quickly conquered new heights and speeds. Serial production of one institute could not pull, and in October 1952 engineer Alexander Boyko created a special workshop at plant No. 918 in Tomilino near Moscow. Now this enterprise is known as NPP "Zvezda". It was there that the spacesuit was created for Yuri Gagarin.

Spacesuits for dogs (in the photo - Belka) were made simpler: the animals did not need to do difficult work.

First flights

When, in the late 1950s, Soviet design engineers began designing the first Vostok spacecraft, they initially planned that a person would fly into space without a spacesuit. The pilot was to be placed in a sealed container that would be fired from the descent vehicle before landing. However, such a scheme turned out to be cumbersome and required lengthy tests, so in August 1960, Sergey Korolev's bureau redesigned the internal layout of the Vostok, replacing the container with an ejection seat. Accordingly, in order to protect the future cosmonaut in the event of a depressurization, it was necessary to quickly create a suitable suit. There was no time left to dock the spacesuit with the onboard systems, so they decided to make a life support system that could be placed directly in the chair.

The spacesuit, designated SK-1, was based on the Vorkuta high-altitude suit, which was intended for pilots of the Su-9 fighter-interceptor. Only the helmet had to be completely redone. For example, a special mechanism was installed in it, controlled by a pressure sensor: if it fell sharply, the mechanism instantly slammed the transparent visor.

The first cosmonaut in not the first spacesuit: Yuri Gagarin in SK-1.

Each spacesuit was made to measure. To the first space flight It was not possible to "sheathe" the entire cosmonaut corps, which at that time consisted of twenty people. Therefore, at first they singled out six who showed the best level of preparation, and then - the three "leaders": Yuri Gagarin, German Titov and Grigory Nelyubov. For them, the spacesuits were made in the first place.

One of the SK-1 spacesuits entered orbit before the cosmonauts. During the unmanned test launches of the Vostok spacecraft, conducted on March 9 and 25, 1961, a humanoid mannequin in a spacesuit, nicknamed "Ivan Ivanovich", was on board along with the experimental mongrels. A cage with mice and guinea pigs was installed in his chest. Under the transparent visor of the helmet they put a sign with the inscription "Model" so that casual witnesses of the landing would not mistake it for an alien invasion.

The SK-1 spacesuit was used in five manned flights of the Vostok spacecraft. Only for the flight of Vostok-6, in the cockpit of which Valentina Tereshkova was, was created the SK-2 spacesuit, taking into account the peculiarities of the female anatomy.

Valentina Tereshkova in the "ladies'" spacesuit SK-2. The first Soviet spacesuits were bright orange to make it easier to find the pilot who landed. But space suits for outer space are better suited to reflecting all the rays of white.

The Mercury program spacesuit has demonstrated its reliability. Only once, when the capsule of "Mercury-4" began to sink after splashdown, the spacesuit nearly killed Virgil Grissom - the astronaut barely managed to disconnect from the ship's life support system and get out.

Spacewalk

At first, for their new manned Gemini program, the Americans wanted to modify the "Mercurian" Mark IV spacesuit, but by that time the G3C high-altitude sealed suit, created for the project of the X-15 rocket plane, was completely ready - it was taken as a basis. In total, during the Gemini flights, three modifications were used - G3C, G4C and G5C, and only G4C suits were suitable for spacewalk. All the suits were connected to the ship's life support system, but in case of problems, an autonomous ELSS device was provided, the resources of which were enough to support the astronaut for half an hour. However, the astronauts did not have to use it.

It was in the G4C suit that Edward White, the pilot of Gemini 4, made a spacewalk. It happened on June 3, 1965. But by that time he was not the first - two and a half months before White, Alexei Leonov set off on a free flight next to the Voskhod-2 spacecraft.

The Voskhod-2 crew, Pavel Belyaev and Alexei Leonov, in Berkut spacesuits.

The Voskhod ships were created to achieve space records. In particular, on "Voskhod-1" a crew from three cosmonauts - for this, the ejection seat was removed from the spherical descent vehicle, and the cosmonauts themselves went into flight without spacesuits. The Voskhod-2 spacecraft was being prepared for the exit of one of the crew members into open space, and here one could not do without a sealed suit.

The Berkut spacesuit was specially developed for the historic flight. Unlike the SK-1, the new suit had a second hermetic shell, a helmet with a light filter, and a backpack with oxygen cylinders, the supply of which was enough for 45 minutes. In addition, the astronaut was connected to the spacecraft by a seven-meter halyard, which included a shock-absorbing device, a steel cable, an emergency oxygen supply hose and electrical wires.

The Voskhod-2 spacecraft was launched on March 18, 1965, and at the beginning of the second orbit, Alexei Leonov left. Immediately, the crew commander Pavel Belyaev solemnly announced to the whole world: “Attention! The man went out into outer space! " The image of the astronaut hovering against the background of the Earth was broadcast on all TV channels. Leonov was in the void for 23 minutes 41 seconds.

Records in a vacuum

The absolute record holder in number of hours spent in outer space, for many years now russian cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyov - he made 16 exits with a total duration of 78 hours 46 minutes. In second place is American Michael Lopez-Alegria; he made 10 exits with a total duration of 67 hours and 40 minutes.

The longest was the release of Americans James Voss and Susan Helms on March 11, 2001, which lasted 8 hours 56 minutes.

Maximum number of exits per flight - seven; this record belongs to the Russian Sergei Krikalev.

Longest on the surface of the moon there were the Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt: in three exits in December 1972, they spent 22 hours and 4 minutes there.

If we compare not cosmonauts, but countries, then the USA is undoubtedly leading here: 224 exits, 1365 hours 53 minutes outside the ship.

Spacesuits for the moon

The spacesuit for the flight to the moon was improved during the entire Apollo program. The first version of the A5L did not satisfy the customer, and soon the A6L spacesuit appeared, to which an insulating shell was added. After a fire on January 27, 1967 on the Apollo 1 spacecraft, which led to the death of three astronauts (including the aforementioned Edward White and Virgil Grissom), the spacesuit was modified to a fire-resistant version of the A7L.

By design, the A7L was a one-piece, multi-layer suit covering the torso and limbs, with flexible joints made of rubber. The metal rings on the collar and sleeve cuffs were intended for the installation of sealed gloves and a "helmet-aquarium". All spacesuits had a vertical "zipper" that ran from the neck to the groin. The A7L provided astronauts with four hours of work on the moon. Just in case, there was also a reserve life support unit in the knapsack, designed for half an hour. It was in the A7L suits that astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin set foot on the moon on July 21, 1969.

The last three flights of the lunar program have used A7LB suits. They featured two new articulations on the neck and waistband, a refinement needed to make the moon car easier to drive. Later, this version of space suits was used on the American orbital station Skylab and during the international flight Soyuz-Apollo.

Soviet cosmonauts were also going to the moon. And they prepared the Krechet spacesuit for them. Since, according to the idea, only one crew member was supposed to land on the surface, a semi-rigid version was chosen for the spacesuit - with a door on the back. The astronaut was not supposed to wear a suit, as in the American version, but literally fit into it. A special cable system and a side lever made it possible to close the cover behind itself. The entire life support system was located in a hinged door and did not work outside, like the Americans, but in a normal inner atmosphere, which simplified the design. Although the Krechet never made it to the Moon, its work was used to create other models.

Birds of Prey of Space

The "Yastreb" spacesuit was basically similar to the "Berkut", which was used on the "Voskhod-2" ship. The differences were in the life support system: now the breathing mixture circulated inside the spacesuit in a closed circuit, where it was cleaned of carbon dioxide and harmful impurities, fed with oxygen and cooled. In the Hawks, cosmonauts Alexei Eliseev and Yevgeny Khrunov went from ship to ship during the Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5 flights in January 1969.

The cosmonauts flew to orbital stations without rescue suits - due to this, it was possible to increase supplies on board the ship. But once space did not forgive such liberties: in June 1971, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsaev died due to depressurization. The designers had to urgently create a new Sokol-K rescue suit. The first flight in these spacesuits was carried out in September 1973 aboard Soyuz-12. Since then, cosmonauts, setting off on flights on the domestic Soyuz spacecraft, have always used the Falcon variants.

It is noteworthy that the Sokol-KV2 spacesuits were purchased by Chinese trade representatives, after which China got its own space suit, called, like the manned spacecraft, Shenzhou and very similar to the Russian model. In such a spacesuit, the first taikonaut Yang Liwei went into orbit.

Spacesuits from the Falcon series were not suitable for spacewalk, therefore, when Soviet Union began to launch orbital stations, allowing the construction of various modules, and needed an appropriate protective suit. It was "Orlan" - an autonomous semi-rigid spacesuit, created on the basis of the lunar "Gyrfalcon". The Orlan also had to get in through the door in the back. In addition, the creators of these spacesuits managed to make them universal: now the legs and sleeves were adjusted to the astronaut's height.

Orlan-D was first tested in open space in December 1977 at the Salyut-6 orbital station. Since then, these spacesuits in various modifications have been used on the Salyut, the Mir complex and the International space station (ISS). Thanks to the spacesuit, astronauts can keep in touch with each other, with the station itself and with the Earth.

The Orlan series suits were so good that the Chinese made their Feitian for spacewalk after their model. On September 27, 2008, this operation was performed by the taikonaut Zhai Zhigang during the flight of the "Shenzhou-7" spacecraft. It is characteristic that when he left, he was insured by his partner Liu Bomin in the Orlan-M bought from Russia.

Dangerous space

Spacewalk is dangerous for many reasons: deep vacuum, extreme temperatures, solar radiation, space debris, and micrometeorites. Moving away from the spacecraft also poses a serious danger.

The first dangerous incident occurred with Alexei Leonov in March 1965. After completing the program, the astronaut was unable to return to the spacecraft due to the fact that his spacesuit was inflated. After making several attempts to enter the airlock with his feet forward, Leonov decided to turn around. At the same time, he reduced the level of overpressure in the suit to a critical one, which allowed him to squeeze into the airlock.

The suit damage incident occurred during the flight of the shuttle Atlantis in April 1991 (mission STS-37). A small rod pierced the glove of astronaut Jerry Ross. By a lucky coincidence, no depressurization occurred - the rod got stuck and "sealed" the hole. The puncture was not even noticed until the astronauts returned to the ship and began checking the suits.

Another potentially dangerous incident occurred on July 10, 2006 during the second spacewalk of the astronauts of the shuttle "Discovery" (flight STS-121). A special winch detached from Pierce Sellers's spacesuit, which prevented the astronaut from flying into space. Noticing the problem in time, Sellers and his partner managed to reattach the device, and the work was completed safely.

Spacesuits of the future

Under the program of reusable spaceships The Space Shuttle the Americans have developed several space suits. When testing a new rocket and space system, astronauts donned SEES, a rescue suit borrowed from military aviation. In further flights, it was replaced by the LES variant, and then by the more advanced ACES modification.

The EMU spacesuit was created for spacewalks. It consists of a hard top and soft pants. Like Orlan, EMUs can be reused by different astronauts. In it, you can safely work in space for seven hours, another half hour is provided by the backup life support system. The state of the spacesuit is monitored by a special microprocessor system that warns the astronaut if something goes wrong. The first EMU entered orbit in April 1983 on the Challenger spacecraft. Today spacesuits of this type are actively used on the ISS along with the Russian Orlans.

NASA deep space suits: A7LB lunar spacesuit, EMU shuttle spacesuit and I-Suit experimental spacesuit.

Americans believe that EMU is outdated. NASA's promising space program includes flights to asteroids, return to the moon and an expedition to Mars. Therefore, a spacesuit is needed that would combine the positive qualities of rescue and work suits. Most likely, it will have a hatch behind its back, allowing the spacesuit to be docked to the station or living module on the planet's surface. To bring such a spacesuit into working condition (including sealing), it only takes a few minutes.

A prototype Z-1 spacesuit is already being tested. For a certain external resemblance to the costume of a famous cartoon character, he was nicknamed "Buzz Lightyear's spacesuit."

Experts have not yet decided in what costume a person will first set foot on the surface of the Red Planet. Although Mars has an atmosphere, it is so rarefied that it easily lets in solar radiation, so the person inside the spacesuit must be well protected. NASA experts are considering a wide palette of options: from a heavy, rigid Mark III spacesuit to a light skin-tight Bio-Suit.

Prospective Bio-Suit (prototype). Conquer Mars while staying stylish!

∗∗∗

Spacesuit manufacturing technologies will develop. Space suits will become smarter, more elegant, more sophisticated. Perhaps someday a universal shell will appear that can protect a person in any environment. But even today spacesuits are a unique product of technologies that can be called fantastic without exaggeration.

aslan wrote in April 12th, 2017

Few people know that only one component was fully prepared and tested for the Soviet expedition to the moon - the Krechet space suit. More less people know how it works.

With the development of jet aviation, the problems of protecting and rescuing the crew during high-altitude flights arose seriously. With a drop in pressure, it becomes more difficult for the human body to absorb oxygen, a common person without any problems can be at an altitude of no more than 4-5 km. At high altitudes, it is necessary to add oxygen to the inhaled air, and from 7-8 km a person should generally breathe pure oxygen. Above 12 km, the lungs completely lose the ability to absorb oxygen - pressure compensation is required to ascend to a great height.

Today there are only two types of pressure compensation: mechanical and the creation of a gaseous environment around a person with excess pressure. Typical examples of the first type of solution are high-altitude compensatory flight suits - for example, VKK-6, used by MiG-31 pilots. In the event of a cabin depressurization, such a suit creates pressure, squeezing the body mechanically... This costume is based on a rather witty idea. The pilot's body is entangled with ribbons resembling an eight.

A rubber tube is passed through a smaller hole. In the event of a depressurization, compressed air is supplied to the chamber, it increases in diameter, reducing, accordingly, the diameter of the ring entangling the pilot. However, this method of pressure compensation is extreme: a trained pilot in a compensating suit can spend no more than 20 minutes in an unpressurized cockpit. And it is impossible to create uniform pressure on the whole body with such a suit: some parts of the body are overtightened, some are not compressed at all.

Another thing is a spacesuit, which is, in fact, a sealed bag in which excess pressure is created. The time spent by a person in a spacesuit is practically unlimited. But it also has its drawbacks - limiting the mobility of a pilot or astronaut. What is a spacesuit sleeve? In practice, this is an aerobalk, in which excess pressure is created (in spacesuits, a pressure of 0.4 atmospheres is usually maintained, which corresponds to an altitude of 7 km). Try flexing your inflated car camera. Difficult? Therefore, one of the most guarded secrets of the production of spacesuits is the production technology of special “soft” hinges. But first things first.

"Vorkuta"
The first spacesuits, made before the war at the LII im. Gromov, were created for research purposes and were used mainly for experimental flights on stratospheric balloons... After the war, interest in space suits resumed, and in 1952 a special enterprise for the manufacture and development of such systems was opened in Tomilin near Moscow - Plant No. 918, now NPP Zvezda. During the 50s, the company developed a whole line of experimental spacesuits, but only one of them, Vorkuta, designed for the Su-9 interceptor, was produced in a small series.

Almost simultaneously with the release of Vorkuta, the enterprise was given a task to develop a spacesuit and a rescue system for the first cosmonaut. Initially, the Korolev Design Bureau issued to Zvezda the terms of reference for the development of a spacesuit completely enclosed in the ship's life support system. However, a year before Gagarin's flight, a new assignment was received - for an ordinary protective suit, designed to rescue the astronaut only during his ejection and splashdown.

Opponents of spacesuits considered the probability of the ship's depressurization extremely small. Six months later, Korolev again changed his mind - this time in favor of spacesuits. Ready-made aviation suits were taken as a basis. There was no time left for docking with the onboard system of the spacecraft, so an autonomous version of the life support system of the spacesuit was adopted, placed in the cosmonaut's ejection seat.

The shell for the first space suit SK-1 was largely borrowed from Vorkuta, but the helmet was completely redesigned. The task was set extremely tough: the spacesuit had to save the astronaut by all means! No one knew how a person would behave during the first flight, so the life support system was built in such a way as to save the astronaut, even if he lost consciousness - many functions were automated. For example, a special mechanism was installed in the helmet, controlled by a pressure sensor. And if it fell sharply in the ship, a special mechanism instantly slammed the transparent visor, completely sealing the spacesuit.

Layer by layer
Spacesuits consist of two main shells: an internal sealed and an external power one. In the first Soviet spacesuits, the inner shell was made of sheet rubber by the method of elementary gluing. The rubber, however, was special, for its production high-quality natural rubber was used. Starting with the Sokol rescue spacesuits, the hermetically sealed envelope has become rubber-fabric, however, no alternative to sheet rubber is foreseen in spacewalking suits.

"Lunar" spacesuit of astronauts participating in the Apollo missions.

The outer shell is fabric. Americans use nylon for it, we are a domestic analogue, nylon. It protects the rubber shell from damage and keeps its shape. A better analogy than a soccer ball is hard to come up with: a leather outer cover protects the inner rubber tube from football boots and ensures that the geometric dimensions of the ball remain constant.

No person will be able to spend a long time in a rubber bag (those who have military experience of marches in a rubberized combined arms protective kit will understand this especially well). Therefore, in every spacesuit, there is a mandatory ventilation system: through one channels conditioned air is supplied to the whole body, through others it is sucked out.

According to the method of operation of the life support system, space suits are divided into two types - ventilation and regeneration. In the first, simpler in design, the used air is thrown out, similar to modern scuba diving. The first SK-1 spacesuits, Leonov's spacesuit "Berkut" and light rescue spacesuits "Sokol" were designed according to this principle.

Thermos
Long-term stay in space and on the lunar surface required long-term regeneration spacesuits - "Orlan" and "Krechet". In them, the exhaled gas is regenerated, moisture is taken from it, the air is saturated with oxygen and cooled. In fact, such a miniature spacesuit copies the life support system of an entire spacecraft. Under the spacesuit, the cosmonaut wears a special water-cooled mesh suit, all permeated with plastic tubes with cooling liquid. Heating problems in outdoor space suits (designed for spacewalk) never arose, even if the astronaut worked in the shade, where the temperature rapidly drops to -100C.

The fact is that the outer overalls ideally serve as heat-protective clothing. For this, for the first time, screen-vacuum insulation was used, operating on the principle of a thermos. Under the outer protective shell of the overalls, there are five to six layers of a special film made of special polyethylene, teriphthalate, on both sides of which aluminum is sprayed. In vacuum, heat transfer between film layers is possible only due to radiation, which is re-reflected back by a mirror-like aluminum surface. The external heat exchange in vacuum in such a spacesuit is so small that it is considered equal to zero, and only internal heat exchange is taken into account in the calculation.

For the first time, screen-vacuum thermal protection was used on the Berkut, in which Leonov went into outer space. However, under the first rescue suits, which did not work in a vacuum, a TVK (heat-protective ventilated suit) was worn, made of warm quilted material, in which the ventilation ducts were laid. This is not the case in modern Sokol rescue suits.

In addition to all this, the cosmonauts are put on cotton underwear with a special antibacterial impregnation, under which the last element is located - a special bib with telemetric sensors fixed on it, transmitting information about the state of the astronaut's body.

Sokolyata
Space suits were not always on ships. After the successful six flights of the Vostoks, they were deemed useless cargo, and all further ships ("Voskhody" and "Soyuz") were designed to fly without regular spacesuits. It was considered expedient to use only external space suits for spacewalk. However, the death of Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patsaev in 1971 as a result of the depressurization of the Soyuz-11 cabin made us return to the proven solution. However, the old spacesuits in new ship did not fit. As a matter of urgency, the light Sokol spacesuit, originally developed for the T-4 supersonic strategic bomber, began to be adapted for space needs.

The task was not easy. If during the landing of the Vostoks the cosmonaut ejected, the Voskhod and Soyuz made a soft landing with the crew inside. She was soft only relatively - the impact upon landing was palpable. The shock was absorbed by the energy-absorbing chair "Kazbek" developed by the same "Zvezda". Kazbek was formed individually for each cosmonaut, who lay in it without a single gap. Therefore, the ring to which the spacesuit helmet is attached would have broken the astronaut's cervical vertebra upon impact.

In "Falcon" an original solution was found - a sector helmet that does not cover the back of the spacesuit, which is made soft. A number of emergency systems and a heat-protective layer were also removed from the Falcon, since in the event of a splashdown when leaving the Soyuz, the cosmonauts had to change into special suits. The life support system of the suit was also greatly simplified, designed for only two hours of work.

As a result, Sokol became a bestseller: since 1973, more than 280 of them have been manufactured. In the early 90s, two Falcons were sold to China, and the first Chinese cosmonaut flew to conquer space in an exact replica of a Russian spacesuit. True, unlicensed. But no one has sold spacesuits for open space to the Chinese, so they do not even plan to go into outer space yet.

Cuirassiers
In order to facilitate the design and increase the mobility of outer spacesuits, there was a whole direction (primarily in the United States) that studied the possibility of creating all-metal rigid spacesuits resembling deep-sea diving suits. However, the idea was partially implemented only in the USSR. Soviet spacesuits "Krechet" and "Orlan" received a combined shell - a hard body and soft legs and arms. The body itself, which the designers call a cuirass, is welded from individual elements of an aluminum alloy of the AMG type. This combined scheme turned out to be extremely successful and is now being copied by the Americans. And it arose out of necessity.

The American lunar spacesuit was made according to the classic design. The entire life support system was located in a leaky knapsack on the astronaut's back. Soviet designers, perhaps, would also have gone according to this scheme, if not for one "but". The power of the Soviet N-1 lunar rocket made it possible to deliver only one cosmonaut to the moon, unlike two American ones, and it was not possible to put on a classic spacesuit alone. Therefore, the idea of \u200b\u200ba rigid cuirass with a door on the back to enter inside was put forward.

A special cable system and a side lever made it possible to securely close the cover behind itself. The entire life support system was located in a hinged door and did not work in a vacuum, as in the Americans, but in a normal atmosphere, which simplified the design. True, the helmet had to be made not rotary, as in the early models, but monolithic with the body. The review was offset by a much larger glazing area. The helmets in spacesuits are so interesting that they deserve a separate chapter.

Helm all over the head
The helmet is the most important part of the spacesuit. Even in the "aviation" period, spacesuits were divided into two types - masked and maskless. In the first, the pilot used an oxygen mask through which an air mixture was supplied for breathing. In the second, the helmet was separated from the rest of the spacesuit by a kind of collar, a sealed neck curtain. Such a helmet played the role of a large oxygen mask with a continuous supply of breathing mixture. In the end, the maskless concept won out, providing better ergonomics, although it required more oxygen for breathing. Such helmets also migrated into space.

Space helmets were also divided into two types - removable and non-removable. The first SK-1 was equipped with a fixed helmet, but Leonov's Berkut and Yastreb (in which Eliseev and Khrunov moved from ship to ship in 1969) had removable helmets. Moreover, they were joined by a special pressurized connector with a pressurized bearing, which made it possible for the cosmonaut to turn his head. The swing mechanism was quite interesting.

The newsreel footage clearly shows the astronauts' helmets, which are made of fabric and thin leather. They are equipped with communication systems - headphones and microphones. So, the convex headphones of the headset entered the special grooves of the hard helmet, and when the head was turned, the helmet began to rotate with the head, like a tank turret. The design was rather cumbersome, and was later abandoned. Helmets on modern spacesuits are not removable.

An obligatory element of a helmet for spacewalk is a light filter. Leonov had a small aircraft-type internal light filter covered with a thin layer of silver. When he went into space, Leonov felt a very intense heating of the lower part of his face, and when looking towards the sun, the protective properties of the silver filter were insufficient - the light was blindingly bright. Based on this experience, all subsequent spacesuits began to be equipped with full external light filters with a rather thick layer of pure gold sprayed on, providing a transmission of only 34% of the light. The largest glazing area is at Orlan.

And on the latest models there is even a special window on top - to improve the view. It is almost impossible to break the "glass" of the helmet: it is made of heavy-duty Lexan polycarbonate, which is also used, for example, in the glazing of armored cabins of combat helicopters. However, the "Orlan" also stands as two combat helicopters. The exact price is not named, but they suggest focusing on the cost of the American counterpart - $ 12 million.

The spacesuit is a miracle of technology, a space station in miniature ...
It seems to you that the spacesuit is overcrowded, like a handbag, but in fact everything is done so compactly that it's just beauty ...
In general, my spacesuit looked like a first-class car, and my helmet looked like a Swiss watch.
Robert Heinlein "I have a spacesuit - ready to travel"
Sorry for the long post and the multi-letter, but I just couldn't cut it!

1. The forerunners of the spacesuit. Diving suits of Jean-Baptiste de La Chapelle.

2. Willie Post's high-altitude spacesuit, 1934

The higher a person climbed, the more the need for a suit that would help him take another step towards the sky grew. If an oxygen mask and warm clothing are enough at an altitude of six to seven kilometers, then after the ten-kilometer mark, the pressure drops so much that the lungs cease to absorb oxygen. To survive in such conditions, you need a sealed cabin and a compensating suit, which, when depressurized, compresses the human body, for a while replacing external pressure.
However, if you go even higher, then this painful procedure will not help either: the pilot will die from oxygen starvation and decompression disorders. The only solution is to make a completely sealed spacesuit, in which the internal pressure is maintained at a sufficient level (usually at least 40% of atmospheric pressure, which corresponds to an altitude of seven kilometers). But here there are enough problems: an inflated spacesuit makes it difficult to move, it is almost impossible to perform precise manipulations in it.

3. The first high-altitude space suits of the USSR: Ch-3 (1936) and SK-TsAGI-5 (1940)

The English physiologist John Holden published a series of articles in the 1920s proposing the use of diving suits to protect aeronautics. He even built a prototype of such a spacesuit for American balloonist Mark Ridge. The latter tested the suit in a pressure chamber at a pressure corresponding to an altitude of 25.6 kilometers. However, stratospheric balloons have always been expensive, and Ridge has been unable to raise funds to set a world record with Holden's suit.
In the Soviet Union, the engineer of the Institute of Aviation Medicine Yevgeny Chertovsky was engaged in spacesuits for high-altitude flights. Between 1931 and 1940, he designed seven models of hermetic suits. All of them were far from perfect, but Devil's was the first in the world to solve the problem of mobility. After pressurizing the spacesuit, the pilot needed a lot of effort to simply bend the limb, so in the Ch-2 model the engineer used hinges. Model Ch-3, created in 1936, contained almost all the elements that are in a modern space suit, including absorbent underwear. Ch-3 was tested on the TB-3 heavy bomber on May 19, 1937.

4. Astronauts on the Moon in the movie "Space Flight". The suits are fake, but they look quite similar to real ones.

In 1936, the fantastic film "Space Flight" was released, in the creation of which Konstantin Tsiolkovsky participated. The movie about the upcoming conquest of the moon so captivated the young engineers of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) that they began to actively work on prototypes of space suits. The first sample, indexed SK-TsAGI-1, was designed, manufactured and tested surprisingly quickly - in just one 1937 year.
The suit really gave the impression of something extraterrestrial: the upper and lower parts were connected using a belt connector; shoulder joints appeared to facilitate mobility; the shell consisted of two layers of rubberized fabric. On the second model, an autonomous regeneration system was installed, designed for six hours of continuous operation. In 1940, based on the experience gained, TsAGI engineers created the last pre-war Soviet spacesuit SK-TsAGI-8. It was tested on the I-153 "Chaika" fighter.

5. Spacesuits for dogs (in the photo - Squirrel) were made simpler: the animals did not need to do complicated work.

after the war, the initiative passed to the Flight Research Institute (LII). Its specialists were instructed to create suits for aviation pilots, which quickly conquered new heights and speeds. Serial production of one institute could not pull, and in October 1952 engineer Alexander Boyko created a special workshop at plant No. 918 in Tomilino near Moscow. Now this enterprise is known as NPP "Zvezda". It was there that a spacesuit was created for Yuri Gagarin.

6. The spacesuit, designated SK-1, was based on the Vorkuta high-altitude suit, which was intended for pilots of the Su-9 fighter-interceptor. Only the helmet had to be completely redone

For example, a special mechanism was installed in it, controlled by a pressure sensor: if it fell sharply, the mechanism instantly slammed the transparent visor
When Soviet design engineers began designing the first spacecraft, Vostok, in the late 1950s, they initially planned that a person would fly into space without a spacesuit. The pilot was to be placed in a sealed container that would be fired from the descent vehicle before landing. However, such a scheme turned out to be cumbersome and required lengthy tests, so in August 1960, Sergey Korolev's bureau redesigned the internal layout of the Vostok, replacing the container with an ejection seat. Accordingly, in order to protect the future astronaut in the event of depressurization, it was necessary to quickly create a suitable suit. There was no time left to dock the spacesuit with the onboard systems, so we decided to make a life support system that could be placed directly in the chair.

7. Valentina Tereshkova in a "ladies'" spacesuit SK-2. The first Soviet spacesuits were bright orange to make it easier to find the pilot who landed. But spacesuits for outer space are better suited to reflecting all rays white

Each spacesuit was made to measure. By the time of the first space flight, it was not possible to “sheathe” the entire cosmonaut corps, which at that time consisted of twenty people. Therefore, at first, they singled out six who showed the best level of preparation, and then - the three "leaders": Yuri Gagarin, German Titov and Grigory Nelyubov. For them, the spacesuits were made in the first place.
One of the SK-1 spacesuits entered orbit before the cosmonauts. During the unmanned test launches of the Vostok spacecraft, conducted on March 9 and 25, 1961, a humanoid mannequin in a spacesuit, nicknamed "Ivan Ivanovich", was on board along with the experimental mongrels. A cage with mice and guinea pigs was installed in his chest. Under the transparent visor of the helmet they put a sign with the inscription "Model" so that casual witnesses of the landing would not mistake it for an alien invasion.
The SK-1 spacesuit was used in five manned flights of the Vostok spacecraft. Only for the flight "Vostok-6", in the cockpit of which Valentina Tereshkova was, was created the SK-2 spacesuit, taking into account the peculiarities of the female anatomy.

8. Astronauts of the program "Mercury" in spacesuits Navy Mark IV

American designers of the program "Mercury" followed the path of competitors. However, there were differences that had to be taken into account: the small capsule of their ship did not allow to remain in orbit for a long time, and in the first launches it had only to reach the boundary of outer space. The Navy Mark IV spacesuit was designed by Russell Colley for naval pilots, and was distinguished from other models by flexibility and relatively low weight. To adapt the spacesuit to the spacecraft, several changes had to be made - primarily in the design of the helmet. Each astronaut had three individual spacesuits: for training, for flight, and backup.
The spacesuit of the "Mercury" program has demonstrated its reliability. Only once, when the capsule of "Mercury-4" began to sink after splashdown, the spacesuit nearly killed Virgil Grissom - the astronaut barely managed to disconnect from the ship's life support system and get out.

9. Astronaut Edward White outside the ship.

The first spacesuits were emergency rescue suits, attached to the ship's life support system and did not allow spacewalk. Experts understood that if space expansion continues, then one of the mandatory stages will be the creation of an autonomous spacesuit in which it will be possible to work in outer space.
At first, for their new manned Gemini program, the Americans wanted to modify the "Mercurial" Mark IV spacesuit, but by that time the G3C high-altitude sealed suit, created for the project of the X-15 rocket plane, was completely ready - it was taken as a basis. In total, during the Gemini flights, three modifications were used - G3C, G4C and G5C, and only G4C suits were suitable for spacewalk. All the suits were connected to the ship's life support system, but in case of problems an autonomous ELSS device was provided, the resources of which were enough to support the astronaut for half an hour. However, the astronauts did not have to use it.
It was in the G4C suit that Edward White, the pilot of Gemini 4, made a spacewalk. It happened on June 3, 1965. But by that time he was not the first - two and a half months before White, Alexei Leonov set off on a free flight next to the Voskhod-2 spacecraft.

10. The crew of "Voskhod-2", Pavel Belyaev and Alexey Leonov, in spacesuits "Berkut"

The Voskhod ships were created to achieve space records. In particular, a crew of three cosmonauts flew into space on Voskhod-1 for the first time - for this, the ejection seat was removed from the spherical descent vehicle, and the cosmonauts themselves went into flight without spacesuits. The Voskhod-2 spacecraft was being prepared for the exit of one of the crew members into open space, and here one could not do without a sealed suit.
The Berkut spacesuit was specially developed for the historic flight. Unlike the SK-1, the new suit had a second hermetic shell, a helmet with a light filter and a backpack with oxygen cylinders, the supply of which was enough for 45 minutes. In addition, the astronaut was connected to the spacecraft by a seven-meter halyard, which included a shock-absorbing device, a steel cable, an emergency oxygen supply hose and electrical wires.

11. Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was the first in the world to go into outer space.

12. G4C spacesuit with ELSS wearable device

Although the Americans lost the lead, they quickly and noticeably overtook their Soviet competitors in the number of space walks. Operations outside the ship were carried out during the flights Gemini-4, -9, -10, -11, 12. The next Soviet exit took place only in January 1969. In the same year, the Americans landed on the moon.
P.S.
There is still debate about landing on the moon. There are a lot of arguments proving and refuting this event. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in the middle, probably ..

13. Records in a vacuum

Today you will not surprise anyone with spacewalks: at the end of August 2013, 362 spacewalks were recorded with a total duration of 1981 hours 51 minutes (82.5 days, almost three months). And yet there are records here.
Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyov has been the absolute record holder for the number of hours spent in outer space for many years - he made 16 exits with a total duration of 78 hours 46 minutes. In second place is American Michael Lopez-Alegria; he made 10 exits with a total duration of 67 hours and 40 minutes.
The longest was the release of Americans James Voss and Susan Helms on March 11, 2001, which lasted 8 hours 56 minutes.

The maximum number of exits per flight is seven; this record belongs to the Russian Sergei Krikalev.

The longest on the lunar surface were the Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt: in three exits in December 1972, they spent 22 hours and 4 minutes there.

If we compare not cosmonauts, but countries, then the USA is undoubtedly leading here: 224 exits, 1365 hours 53 minutes outside the ship.

14. Spacesuits for the Moon.

On the moon, very different spacesuits were required than on Earth's orbit. The spacesuit was supposed to become completely autonomous and allow a person to work outside the ship for several hours. It was supposed to provide protection from micrometeorites and, most importantly, from overheating in direct sunlight, because the landing was planned on lunar days. In addition, NASA has built a special tilting stand to find out how reduced gravity affects the movement of astronauts. It turned out that the nature of walking changes dramatically.
The spacesuit for the flight to the moon was improved during the entire Apollo program. The first version of the A5L did not satisfy the customer, and soon the A6L spacesuit appeared, to which an insulating shell was added. After a fire on January 27, 1967 on the Apollo 1 spacecraft, which led to the death of three astronauts (including the aforementioned Edward White and Virgil Grissom), the spacesuit was modified to a fire-resistant version of the A7L.
By design, the A7L was a one-piece, multi-layer suit that covered the torso and limbs, with flexible joints made of rubber. The metal rings on the collar and sleeve cuffs were intended for the installation of sealed gloves and a "helmet-aquarium". All spacesuits had a vertical "zipper" that ran from the neck to the groin. The A7L provided astronauts with four hours of work on the moon. Just in case, there was also a reserve life support unit in the knapsack, designed for half an hour. It was in the A7L suits that astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin set foot on the moon on July 21, 1969.

15. Soviet lunar spacesuit "Krechet".

Soviet cosmonauts were also going to the moon. And they prepared the Krechet spacesuit for them. Since, according to the idea, only one crew member was supposed to land on the surface, a semi-rigid version was chosen for the spacesuit - with a door on the back. The astronaut was not supposed to put on a suit, as in the American version, but literally fit into it. A special cable system and a side lever made it possible to close the cover behind itself. The entire life support system was located in a hinged door and did not work outside, like the Americans, but in a normal internal atmosphere, which simplified the design. Although the Krechet never made it to the Moon, its work was used to create other models.

16.Itaiian emergency rescue spacesuits are similar in every way to the Russian Sokol-KV2 spacesuits

In 1967, flights of the new Soviet Soyuz spacecraft began. They were to become the main vehicle for the creation of long-term orbital stations, so the potential time that a person had to spend outside the ship inevitably increased.
The "Yastreb" spacesuit was basically similar to the "Berkut" that was used on the "Voskhod-2" ship. The differences were in the life support system: now the breathing mixture circulated inside the spacesuit in a closed circuit, where it was cleaned of carbon dioxide and harmful impurities, fed with oxygen and cooled. In the Hawks, cosmonauts Alexei Eliseev and Yevgeny Khrunov went from ship to ship during the Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5 flights in January 1969.
The cosmonauts flew to orbital stations without rescue suits - due to this, it was possible to increase supplies on board the ship. But once space did not forgive such liberties: in June 1971, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsaev died due to depressurization. The designers had to urgently create a new Sokol-K rescue suit. The first flight in these spacesuits was carried out in September 1973 on the Soyuz-12. Since then, cosmonauts, setting off on flights on the domestic Soyuz spacecraft, have always used the Falcon variants.
It is noteworthy that the Sokol-KV2 spacesuits were purchased by Chinese trade representatives, after which China got its own space suit, called, like the manned spacecraft, Shenzhou and very similar to the Russian model. In such a spacesuit, the first taikonaut Yang Liwei went into orbit.

17. Spacesuits "Orlan-MK" - best friends astronaut!

Space suits from the Falcon series were not suitable for spacewalk, therefore, when the Soviet Union began to launch orbital stations that would allow the construction of various modules, an appropriate protective suit was also needed. It was the Orlan, an autonomous semi-rigid spacesuit based on the lunar Gyrfalcon. The Orlan also had to get in through the door in the back. In addition, the creators of these spacesuits managed to make them universal: now the legs and sleeves were adjusted to the astronaut's height.
Orlan-D was first tested in open space in December 1977 at the Salyut-6 orbital station. Since then, these suits in various modifications have been used on Salyut, the Mir complex and the International Space Station (ISS). Thanks to the spacesuit, astronauts can keep in touch with each other, with the station itself and with the Earth. The first dangerous incident happened with Alexei Leonov in March 1965. After completing the program, the cosmonaut was unable to return to the ship due to the fact that his spacesuit was inflated. After making several attempts to enter the airlock with his feet forward, Leonov decided to turn around. At the same time, he reduced the level of excess pressure in the suit to a critical one, which allowed him to squeeze into the airlock.
The suit damage incident occurred during the flight of the space shuttle Atlantis in April 1991 (mission STS-37). A small rod pierced the glove of astronaut Jerry Ross. By a lucky coincidence, no depressurization occurred - the rod got stuck and "sealed" the hole. The puncture was not even noticed until the astronauts returned to the ship and began checking the suits.
Another potentially dangerous incident occurred on July 10, 2006, during the second spacewalk of the shuttle Discovery astronauts (flight STS-121). A special winch detached from Pierce Sellers's spacesuit, which prevented the astronaut from flying into space. Noticing the problem in time, Sellers and his partner managed to reattach the device, and the work was completed safely.

20. Space suits NASA: lunar spacesuit A7LB, spacesuit for "shuttle" EMU and experimental spacesuit I-Suit.

For the Space Shuttle reusable spacecraft program, the Americans have developed several space suits. When testing a new rocket and space system, astronauts donned SEES, a rescue suit borrowed from military aviation. In further flights, it was replaced by the LES variant, and then by a more advanced modification of the ACES.
The EMU spacesuit was created for spacewalks. It consists of a hard top and soft pants. Like Orlan, EMUs can be reused by different astronauts. In it, you can safely work in space for seven hours, another half hour is provided by the backup life support system. The state of the spacesuit is monitored by a special microprocessor system that warns the astronaut if something goes wrong. The first EMU entered orbit in April 1983 on the Challenger spacecraft. Today spacesuits of this type are actively used on the ISS along with the Russian Orlans.

21. Project Z-1 - "Buzz Lightyear's spacesuit".

americans believe EMU is outdated. NASA's promising space program includes flights to asteroids, return to the moon and an expedition to Mars. Therefore, a space suit is needed that would combine the positive qualities of rescue and work suits. Most likely, it will have a hatch behind its back, allowing the spacesuit to be docked to a station or living module on the planet's surface. It takes a matter of minutes to bring such a suit up and running (including sealing).

A prototype Z-1 spacesuit is already being tested. For a certain external resemblance to the costume of a famous cartoon character, he was nicknamed "Buzz Lightyear's spacesuit."

22. Advanced Bio-Suit (prototype). Conquer Mars while staying stylish!

Spacesuit manufacturing technologies will develop. Space suits will become smarter, more elegant, more sophisticated. Perhaps one day a universal shell will appear that can protect a person in any environment. But even today, spacesuits are a unique product of technologies that, without exaggeration, can be called fantastic.

A spacesuit is not just a suit. It is a spaceship that follows the shape of the body.

And he appeared long before the first flights into space. At the beginning of the 20th century, scientists already knew that conditions in space and on other planets are very different from those on Earth.

For future space flights, it was necessary to come up with a suit that would protect a person from the effects of a deadly external environment.

A spacesuit is a miracle of technology, a space station in miniature ... It seems to you that the spacesuit is overcrowded, like a handbag, but in reality everything is made so compact that it’s just beauty ... In general, my spacesuit looked like a first-class car, and my helmet - for Swiss watches.
Robert Heinlein "I have a spacesuit - ready to travel"

Spacesuit forerunners

Jean-Baptiste de La Chapelle's diving suits.

The first high-altitude spacesuits of the USSR: Ch-3 (1936) and SK-TsAGI-5 (1940)

In 1936, the fantastic film "Space Flight" was released, in the creation of which Konstantin Tsiolkovsky participated. The movie about the upcoming conquest of the moon so captivated the young engineers of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) that they began to actively work on prototypes of space suits. The first sample, designated SK-TsAGI-1, was designed, manufactured and tested surprisingly quickly - in just one 1937 year. The suit really gave the impression of something extraterrestrial: the upper and lower parts were connected using a belt connector; shoulder joints appeared to facilitate mobility; the shell consisted of two layers of rubberized fabric. On the second model, an autonomous regeneration system was installed, designed for six hours of continuous operation. In 1940, based on the experience gained, TsAGI engineers created the last pre-war Soviet spacesuit SK-TsAGI-8. It was tested on the I-153 "Chaika" fighter.

Spacesuits for dogs (in the photo - Belka) were made simpler: the animals did not need to do difficult work.

First flights

The first cosmonaut in not the first spacesuit: Yuri Gagarin in SK-1.

Spacewalk

The Voskhod-2 crew, Pavel Belyaev and Alexei Leonov, in Berkut spacesuits.

G4C spacesuit with ELSS wearable device.

Records in a vacuum

The absolute record holder in number of hours spent in outer spaceFor many years now, the Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyov has remained - he made 16 exits with a total duration of 78 hours 46 minutes. In second place is American Michael Lopez-Alegria; he made 10 exits with a total duration of 67 hours and 40 minutes.

The longest was the release of Americans James Voss and Susan Helms on March 11, 2001, which lasted 8 hours 56 minutes.

Maximum number of exits per flight - seven; this record belongs to the Russian Sergei Krikalev.

Longest on the surface of the moon there were the Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt: in three exits in December 1972, they spent 22 hours and 4 minutes there.

If we compare not cosmonauts, but countries, then the USA is undoubtedly leading here: 224 exits, 1365 hours 53 minutes outside the ship.

Spacesuits for the moon

Soviet cosmonauts were also going to the moon. And they prepared the Krechet spacesuit for them. Since, according to the idea, only one crew member was supposed to land on the surface, a semi-rigid version was chosen for the spacesuit - with a door on the back. The astronaut was not supposed to put on a suit, as in the American version, but literally fit into it. A special cable system and a side lever made it possible to close the cover behind itself. The entire life support system was located in a hinged door and did not work outside, like the Americans, but in a normal internal atmosphere, which simplified the design. Although the Krechet never made it to the Moon, its work was used to create other models.

Birds of Prey of Space

Orlan-D was first tested in open space in December 1977 at the Salyut-6 orbital station. Since then, these suits in various modifications have been used on the Salyut, the Mir complex and the International Space Station (ISS). Thanks to the spacesuit, astronauts can keep in touch with each other, with the station itself and with the Earth.

Dangerous space

Spacewalk is dangerous for many reasons: deep vacuum, extreme temperatures, solar radiation, space debris, and micrometeorites. Moving away from the spacecraft also poses a serious danger.

Spacesuits of the future

Americans believe that EMU is outdated. NASA's promising space program includes flights to asteroids, return to the moon and an expedition to Mars. Therefore, a spacesuit is needed that would combine the positive qualities of rescue and work suits. Most likely, it will have a hatch behind its back, allowing the spacesuit to be docked to a station or living module on the planet's surface. It takes a matter of minutes to bring such a spacesuit into working condition (including sealing).

A prototype Z-1 spacesuit is already being tested. For a certain external resemblance to the costume of a famous cartoon character, he was nicknamed "Buzz Lightyear's spacesuit."

Prospective Bio-Suit (prototype). Conquer Mars while staying stylish!

∗∗∗

The design of the first high-altitude spacesuits that create an environment around a person with excess pressure in relation to the surrounding atmosphere began in the 1930s. Then they were invented for human flights on stratospheric balloons (high-altitude balloons). Now there are only three "ateliers" where spacesuits are made. They are located in Russia, the USA and China.

RUSSIAN SCAFFANDER

The Orlan-MK spacesuit is produced by OJSC NPP Zvezda named after academician G.I. Severina "(Moscow region). This is the fifth modification of domestic space suits, it is equipped with a built-in computerized system. Used on the ISS.
1. The helmet has a gold-plated light filter to protect from sunlight. Inside the helmet there is a built-in "Valsalva" - a device for blowing out the ears in case of pressure changes in the spacesuit (looks like a small pad with two tubercles, which, if pressed against them, pinch the nose).
2. Sleeves and legs are removable and adjustable in length. Inside the outer part of the suit there is a cuirass (rigid metal case).
3. Gloves are made according to individual measurements and have thermal insulating lining to keep your hands warm.
4. Electrofal - a wire through which electricity enters the spacesuit when the astronaut is still on board.
5. Electronic control unit. The inscriptions on the block are mirrored so that the astronaut can read them with the help of mirrors worn on the sleeves 6.
7. Button to enter the menu of the control unit and disable the alarm.
8. Life support system backpack. Contains primary and secondary oxygen supply systems and a communications block.
9. LEDs. Notify the astronaut in emergency situations (in case of leakage, problems with ventilation, oxygen, etc.).
10. Attachment of the cable covering the spacesuit hatch on the back. Through this hatch, the astronaut enters the spacesuit.
Weight - 114 kg, a constant pressure of 0.4 atmospheres is maintained inside the spacesuit.
The operating time of the life support system of a spacesuit in one cycle (from putting on to taking off) is 10 hours (of which 7 hours are assigned to work in open space, the rest of the time is spent in the compartment before going into space and after returning).
The outer shell of the spacesuit is a phenylone fabric capable of withstanding significant static and dynamic loads and a multilayer screen-vacuum heat protection consisting of aluminum foil and mineral fibers.

SCAFANDER USA

The EMU (Extravehicular Mobility Unit) spacewalk suit is manufactured by ILC Dover, and life support systems are supplied by Hamilton Standard. The first version of the EMU was used from 1979 to 2002; its modernized version is currently in operation. The cost of one spacesuit is $ 12 million.
1. The helmet has a gold-plated light filter to protect from sunlight. The helmet is connected by a tube to a 0.95 liter container of water.
2. LEDs - necessary for working in shady areas.
3. Control and monitoring unit, including temperature, oxygen and communication regulators. The inscriptions on the block are mirrored so that the astronaut can read them with the help of mirrors sewn into the sleeves.
4. The life support system backpack containing the main and spare oxygen supply systems and a communications unit.
5. Oxygen supply system. Along with the main one, there is an emergency one, the reserve of which is enough for 30 minutes.
6. Heated gloves. They allow you to maintain the sensitivity of the fingers due to the rubberized elements.
7. Camcorder.
8. Safety carabiner.
Weight - 178 kg, a constant pressure of 0.3 atmospheres is maintained inside the spacesuit.
Working time in open space - up to 7 hours.
The suit consists of 14 layers (including nylon, neoprene, synthetic polyester fiber and thermoplastic) and is able to withstand temperature drops from –184 to +149 degrees Celsius.