Today I got to try a flight space suit!
I went to the facility that produces the EMU spacewalking suit for a fit check in Class 1 hardware – components that are not meant for training in the pool, but rather for space. The purpose was to get the configuration of the suit that I would use on orbit, which can differ somewhat from the one in the NBL, since in the pool we don’t actually float inside the suit itself. A lot of the padding that, being a small person, I use in the water to prevent me from shifting “down” inside the EMU whenever I change body orientation is not needed in weightlessness.
It was also a chance to work with Class 1 gloves inside the suit and evaluate the fit. As you might remember, I had a separate glove fit check in the glove box in the past.
Once the fit check was completed, we verified that I could reach all the switches, levers and controls on the the Display and Control Unit (DCM) in front of the suit, that I could attach the umbilicals and that I could raise and lower the visor, turn on and off lights and cameras and open the purge valve, which basically opens a hole in the helmet to vent oxygen outside – but no worries, the suit regulator is capable of compensating for that, so internal pressure in maintained. May not be so important when it’s just overpressure with respect to ambient pressure, but certainly important in vacuum!
As you can see in the picture (from a past event) we often operate the controls with one hand, while we hold up the other hand to use the mirror that we have at the wrist.
(Trad IT) Traduzione in italiano a cura di +AstronautiNEWS qui:
https://www.astronautinews.it/tag/logbook/
(Trad ES) Tradducción en español aquí:
https://www.intervidia.com/category/bitacora/
(Trad FR) Traduction en français par +Anne Cpamoa ici:
https://spacetux.org/cpamoa/category/traductions/logbook-samantha/
11/03/2014