Author Topic: Apollo suit in the Virgin Islands  (Read 2488 times)

Offline Dalhousie

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Apollo suit in the Virgin Islands
« on: July 23, 2016, 03:18:54 AM »
The attached image is scanned from a 1967 National Geographic Publication called "World Beneath the Sea".  It's of a engineering test off the Virgin Islands of a space suit prototype appropriately ballasted to simulate lunar gravity.  Does anyone know anything about these tests?

Offline Glom

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Re: Apollo suit in the Virgin Islands
« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2016, 05:08:42 AM »
The pressure's going the wrong way. Is this really an appropriate testing environment? Or is this suit pressurised to rho.g.(h+3m)?

Offline Dalhousie

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Re: Apollo suit in the Virgin Islands
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2016, 06:49:22 AM »
The pressure's going the wrong way. Is this really an appropriate testing environment? Or is this suit pressurised to rho.g.(h+3m)?

The pressure has got to be above ambient or he couldn't breath.  It's not a constant volume, one atmosphere suit.

It it an appropriate test environment?  With suitable ballast, quite possibly, especially for testing 1/6th gravity EVA procedures. It's not the suit that is being tested here, but movement under simulated partial gravity.

Offline Dalhousie

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Re: Apollo suit in the Virgin Islands
« Reply #3 on: July 23, 2016, 06:53:13 AM »
It may have been at the Buck Island facility run by General Electric, which was also used for MOL and Saturn IV-B workshop EVAs. https://airandspace.si.edu/files/pdf/research/neufeld-charles-neutral-buoyancy.pdf
« Last Edit: July 23, 2016, 07:00:22 AM by Dalhousie »

Offline Dalhousie

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Re: Apollo suit in the Virgin Islands
« Reply #4 on: July 23, 2016, 07:24:03 AM »