[Brandi Dean] We're back in Building 7 again in the spacesuit lab with Marc Ciupitu again.
And he's going to tell us...we talked a little bit last time about the Orlan suit.
He's going to tell us a little bit now about how it differs from the EMU,
the Extravehicular Mobility Unit, that we use on U.S. spacewalks.
So we've got the EMU here next to us.
Maybe you can point out a few of the features.
[Marc Ciupitu] Sure.
I mentioned that on the Orlan how you ingress through a door on the back of the suit.
So that's one of the main differences
between the two suits...how you put the suit on, how you don it.
The EMU is made more like clothing basically.
You have all these components that you have to put on.
The heart of the torso is attached in the station so the crew can ingress it.
But for each crew member you have to add your own arms.
They're on lower torso.
So the crew ingresses through the heart of the torso and then they have to pull the pants,
if you will, the lower torso assembly on and they lock that into place.
They have to put the helmet on as well.
Cause that's not attached like on the Orlan.
And then lastly they put on the gloves.
[Brandi] Okay.
So you were showing us on the Orlan suit how they have to,
kind of cinch to the different sizes.
We have different size arms and legs and hard upper body torso and things like that.
[Marc] Correct.
[Brandi] Right?
[Marc] Each crew member, the EMU is tailored to them specifically.
So we launch specific components for them to match their sizing.
[Brandi] You can have really long arms but really short legs if you want.
[Marc] That's right.
[Brandi] Okay.
And then we've seen people get into the suits on the station in microgravity.
I'm sure it's probably even a little easier than it is here.
You have to kind of crawl up into it.
[Marc] Correct.
The back...the backpack is locked in place in the station.
The crew will already have donned the lower torso.
And they sort of have to wiggle their way inside the heart of the torso to the arms.
It's not an easy procedure and once they're
in there they lock the lower torso in place and then the helmet.
[Brandi] Okay.
And how long does it take us to get ready for a spacewalk?
[Marc] We're around four hours.
Around the same time.
[Brandi] Okay.
[Marc] The other difference to point
out is...you see the display and control module here.
Basically, it has all the components put together that you see
on the Orlan is split up in four.
You have this electrical control panel, the gauge, the pneumo-hydraulic
and THE interface for the umbilical.
It's four separate areas.
Whereas on the EMU it is all together on the display and control module.
[Brandi] And I always think it's interesting how the letters
and numbers are backwards on the suit.
[Marc] Correct.
the crew member can only see using wrist mirrors that they put on the gloves.
So they have to put everything [unintelligible].
Right they are installed on the gloves.
[Brandi] And then they can hold it front of their chest to see.
[Marc] That's the only way they can see basically on the chest.
[Brandi] Okay.
[Marc] Another main difference to point out is the pressure inside each suit.
The EMU operates at 4.3 PSI.
The Orlan operates a little bit higher at 5.8 PSI.
So the EMU is a little less strenuous for the crew member's to work in.
More flexible.
[Brandi] Alright.
And I know...I mean...our suit was designed
when we were starting the shuttle program right...and I'm sure.
I don't know how...how old is the Orlan?
[Marc] The Orlan has the first version back in the Voskhod,
when they had the Salyut, their space station.
So it's been from the late 60's.
[Brandi] So, yeah.
We're doing really pretty amazing things with some old technology.
[Marc] That's correct.
We work on trying to achieve the same goal, independently, continents apart.
But we came to the same goal, just different avenues.
In the end they are all doing the same thing.
[Brandi] And I know here at NASA we're working on building some new designs for spacesuits.
We should get some cool stuff to see pretty soon.
[Marc] And hopefully we can collaborate with our international partners
and we'll come out with a good final product.
[Brandi] Well thank you again Marc.
We really appreciate you talking with us.
[Marc] Well thank you very much.