it's Norm from Tested calm and I'm here at the neutral buoyancy lab NASA's
neutral buoyancy lab in Houston Texas this is where NASA trains astronauts
before they can go to space and hero Terry done you're the training
Operations Manager and Terry we're in front of a spacesuit right this is the
extra vehicular Mobility unit or EMU as we call it and it's the spacesuits that
astronauts wear for spacewalks either the Space Shuttle back in those days or
the space station now and so this is the news this is the design that's been used
for decades right it's essentially unchanged for the past 40 years now
we've seen what the spacesuit kind of looks like you know in photos and videos
but we don't really know what goes underneath and how an astronaut she puts
on the suit can you show us the different components of a spacesuit and
all the various different accessories that they put on
well sure this is really just the outer layer and it starts with a few things
that we have over here now on this table we have the components to go inside of
the suit starting with the diaper underwear in space oh but it's a diaper
right and it's big enough for an adult but it's the same purpose and ideally
you're not going to have to use it but in reality you're going to be in that
suit about six hours so and this is only worn when you're in going to wear a
spacesuit right and now when you're just flown around the ISS up to that right
personal preference I suppose but when you got to go you got to go no over the
diaper you're going to have basically off-the-shelf cotton long johns
alright so mine is fine right and the idea is that it's going to wick away any
sweat that you have in there so that your body doesn't get slippery and
you're not going to puddle sweat at the bottom of the suit so you would have the
pants and then also a long-sleeve shirt that would go over that sounds good
sounds like everything I could buy at a supermarket right now right so far
you're good be happy you're ready to go into space next you're going to get
derailed a little bit this is the liquid cooled ventilation garment and basically
it's a jumpsuit with very stretchy material but woven in through that
material are tubes on cold water so by varying the flow
rate of that cold water you can manage your body temperature you can imagine
with all this stuff underneath and then all the stuff you're going to put on the
outside you get hot very quickly especially if you're working outside and
so it's just through these tubes here and and it's designed so those are the
points where heat can be can be release more effectively right it's distributed
well enough that you don't feel point cooling it's it's basically an overall
effect okay and then we've got the communication cap and this is really
kind of a NASA trademark this is the Snoopy cap that ya read about forever
and OH
so if you'd like you may try it on I will Wow all right so this plugs in Vani
this will plug into a port on the suit and then you've got electrical power and
there's a radio built in that lets you talk to the guys back inside the space
station and indirectly back down to Mission Control we would also have a few
other ancillary items that are kind of at the discretion of the astronaut
they'll be wearing cotton gloves that go underneath the regular gloves and again
it's the same idea is the undergarments you're just going to want to wick away
the sweat underneath and then we also have a variety of pads and shields that
help limit any contact with the metal inside the suit so you don't get soft
spots and bruising while you're in there this would be an example of those all
right and then after they put all this on they put on the EMU right the outer
part of the suit all right let's go check that out since we're here at the
NBL these suits are used for training purposes how does this suit differ than
what the astronauts actually wear ISS well if you take away the life-support
system which is the backpack looking thing appear there's really no
difference in fact a lot of the hardware that we use here for training is
hardware that's flown in space before been in space and repurposed as training
right I like to think it's been upgraded for training but they call it
downgrading for training an astronaut would have to disassemble it from it
hanging on a wall for putting it on right they would want to break it down
into the same components like we have here and what do they put on first um
the first thing you're going to do is put on the lower torso assembly which to
you and me would be a pair of pants with the shoes built in they call it space
walking but you don't use your legs a whole lot of space working so they would
put this on and it gets pulled out to about their waist once they've got that
they're going to waddle underneath this like in space it's not waddling
going to float underneath here and then squat through the bottom of this upper
torso assembly which is rigidly mounted to the inside of the space station and
then get their arms up through here and their head will pop out of the top and
then at that point they're in the suit and this is a very rigid suit like a
does not lie mobility in here right the upper part that they're called the heart
upper torso for a reason it's really a hard shell and despite the obvious
comfort level of that there's a reason for it and you've got to have all these
different things a life support system the controls for the suit your tools all
have to be rigidly mounted so you need that hard shell to be able to do that
what are the materials that are used for the EMU it's many different materials
and layers I imagine right there's a few different composites that I can't
explain all the details of a secret right the different composites that make
up the hard upper part and then several layers of materials that make up the
bladder part as well so they have the upper unit and then what's next they're
going to button these two pieces together and they'll have an assistant
that helps them do that the bottom part is attached to the upper part here and
then they'll put on gloves and I've got one here if you'd like to try that uh no
yeah there's lace right handed it's a very very tight fit there and the gloves
are the customized some extent a to a degree
um these components the lower torso or something the harder part or so you
really get small medium and large and you get the best fit within that for the
gloves we've got dozens of different sizes so while we don't necessarily make
custom gloves for every person there's a variation that we get pretty close with
just about everybody yeah and what's important feature of the glove you know
in terms of usability functionality and safety there's a fine line between the
dexterity that they have to be able to do a job and the comfort of the fit so
my opinion and I'm sure a lot of people would disagree is that a little bit of
pain is just right that means you're getting the best dexterity you can out
of that glove if it's too comfortable you're probably missing a little bit of
the nuance of being able to work so if you're to get it sort of screw a hundred
times right you don't want the glove in your way and then both gloves on and
finally the helmet then right then the helmet
all right oh it's very echoing here right now when you're really in the suit
you've got the air flowing through you're probably not going to notice that
you've got a lot of materials in there that would damp that sound and with the
helmet on the helmet hasn't turned when vastra nods head turns that's right your
field of view is very limited so is your situational awareness and so you can
basically look almost all the way to your right and left and then you need to
look people look down as well correct so if you need to see beyond those views
you're turning your whole torso like you're in traction to be able to do that
now you're right here there's a knob twist that forward and that's the visor
right there's also one by your left ear
that would be more of a shield to keep direct Sun away from you and when you're
in space you don't have the atmosphere kind of filtering out the light the
sunlight is very bright and what material is this visor made out no
that's just regular probably carbonate looks and plastic very very cool well
that's the anatomy of a spacesuit attached to the spacesuit is life
support unit and different tools then right on the back would be the life
support system and on the front would be the tools that they use and that's all
stored in another lab all right well let's go check those out as well all
right
okay Terry so these are the astronauts tools it's a small selection they have
available yes this is what they would use and this what is this device here
this is called the mini workstation and this part would attach directly to that
hard upper torso that we were looking at and plug right in right and you can
think of this as their tool belt most of the stuff they'll use on any
given spacewalk they would try to store it on here to keep it handy and they
could choose from a different selection of tools on the space station before
they go on the spacewalk right they would decide based on whatever tasks
they're going to do that time so give me example of some of the tools they use
what we have here is a basic ratchet wrench and it's a lot like the ratchet
wrench you would use at home it's a 3 H Drive and the main difference is being
you've got a big wheel in the back so if you're going to be in a tight space
operating this you don't want to have to reach down and turn the socket like you
would at home you can get that glove and put it on the background turn it that
way and also you've got a nice big handle
down here that gives you plenty of gripping strength and it's ridged
now another feature is they have a cheater bar they can flip this into the
bottom you've got the same sort of handle down here but now you've pretty
much doubled your moment arm so you can really put a lot of torque on in
something and at this point you have to be careful that you're not going to
break either the bolt or the head of the socket wrench and so just turn the
socket in space it's different than doing it on earth the socket is turning
you as much as you return the socket so a lot of times it's going to be a
one-handed operation where you're going to use one hand to stabilize yourself
while the other hand does the work or you have the option of using a foot
restraint that would hold you in place do all these tools help me tethered to
the astronaut at all times or it's okay for them to happen for hand no they
never want to have it just relying on their grip to keep it there so we have
these equipment tethers if they're doing a job correctly any tool that they're
using is always going to be attached to one of these others and then they wanted
to change out a head or a different socket then they go this side right they
have a number of different sockets that could choose from again depending on
what they want to do and there would be stored on something like this we call a
socket caddy and so you have a pin you would insert it into this hole in the
socket and so now both of these are tethered
move it over to the wrench and your seizure right so at no point was that
socket free to float away there you go that's the astronauts tool belt their
extended daily carry if you will when they're out outside the space station
right and then all this plus the EMU is how they survive and operate and work
when they're in space very cool thank you so much Terry we'll have more from
NASA and Johnson Space Center and the NBL on test comm I'm norm CX I'm right
he did including video video game
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