SpaceX allowed us a rare opportunity to get up close and personal with their Crew Dragon Capsule and Spacesuit. So here’s a bunch of Macro shots for your pleasure! There’s a lot more to come, but first, let’s get some rare details of the suit itself.
Behind this little plastic patch houses the connection for life support. Crazy how slim and discreet it is. There may be more to it when it’s operational, though I didn’t get a chance to figure that out.
The white portions of the suit are made out of a type of Teflon.
The grey parts are made of Nomex.
The helmet button to latch and unlatch it. There’s one on each side.
The gloves are very detailed and designed specifically to work with the touchscreen.
Crew gets in the suit by way of the inseam. They basically put it on like a large onesie. It is entirely one piece, although the gloves can be opened up and unzipped if you’d like to use bare hands.
Much more to come! Be sure you’re following me on Twitter @ErdayAstronaut and on Instagram @EverydayAstronaut for more behind-the-scenes!
Thanks to my Patreon supporters for helping me be able to afford getting out here! If you’d like to help fund Everyday Astronaut, head on over to Patreon!
27 Comments
it looks like they have a zipper that goes up one leg and part way down the other
my daughter has a onesie with the same style… are they planning on having to dress astronauts who are really grumpy from missing their naps and flailing about?
;-D
Rumour has it that comforters and diapers will be supplied.
Where is the vent valve (and any other possible external connectors) ?
I’m confused as well; there is literally nothing on this suit that looks like it has some mechanical, plumbing, or electric function. I know Elon Musk loves his clean designs, but I can’t even figure out how you’d pop the visor off?….
You guys gotta look at the pics and read the description. It shows the life support access and also on the helmet there is a release button probably more than one so it can’t be accidentally removed.
Check out the companion Everyday Astronaut article, “A rare look inside SpaceX Headquarters and Crew Dragon”, and you can see the umbilicals for the two center seats in the first photo. They are on the seats’ right side (since they connect to the right thigh, as mentioned in this article), with the one for the center left (as viewed in the photo) dangling, and for the center right resting on the seat.
Apparently they managed to put everything into one connection on the right thigh.
You can see where it goes in that picture showing a plastic rectangle on the leg of the suit.
I also read that there was lots of 3D printing used to incorporate air ducts & wiring conduits into suit & helmet.
Really great photographs, well done Tim!!!
I have a perhaps stupid question…. What is the point of the flight suit for astronauts? It is not intended for the EVA and is only used inside the capsule and space station where there is air, so why is it needed at all?
Capsules can leak. The suit provides insurance. Previous vehicles had flight suits.
I would assume that if they leak everyone would be screwed anyway…
Not all space flights have used IVA suits, but after an early Soyuz crew died when their pod decompressed just before re-entry, it’s seemed like a pretty dang good idea. During launch and landing the possibility of cabin depressurization is high enough that a protection mechanism is in place, the flight suit.
Basically, this is the spaceflight equivalent of the oxygen masks that fall out of the ceiling in airliners.
If there is a leak in the spacecraft, these will save the astronauts lives; they are not sturdy enough for spacewalks , but inside of a spacecraft this is fine.
I don’t think sturdiness is the issue; but there are requirements for an EVA suit that an in-vehicle suit doesn’t need. At least, self contained life support and temperature control. Also more flexibility while pressurized (though, you still need enough flexibility in the in-vehicle suit to operate controls if the capsule leaks).
if there is a leak the decompression would be so rapid that it would be almost like an explosion, causing basically anyone to die, so what would the point of oxygen masks be then?
In Soyuz 11 mission due to mulfunction of a valve during descent to earth, module started to lose atmospere which quickly killed all three cosmonauts. USSR started to use flight suits in Soyuz ships after this incident.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_11
The flight suit is for safety, in the event of the capsule atmosphere being compromised.
Cosplay people are really going to appreciate the close up detail shots for recreation purposes. Maybe you should see if you could team up with Adam Savage at Tested (huge space suit fan) for a build – great audience crossover opportunity I would imagine.
TY Tim, I am sure you will oneday make it to space :) You are already living a dream to me.
It sure looks inspired by the movie TRON: Legacy (2010). I hope they make a black version of the spacesuit as well :-D
I am wondering – how do the zippers hold pressure?
Just google for “mit biosuit”, probably it works on the same principle. But who knows.
There are zippers that are used to hold air that are both air and water tight. These zippers were invented by NASA and have made their way into the scuba diving community. They’re used in scuba drysuits to keep them from getting flooded, so the diver can conduct a scuba dive while not getting wet. Those zippers are made of brass. Recently a newer, more flexible version of this zipper has come to market. It’s made of plastic. While my drysuit has the brass type, some of the latest designs have the plastic type. Personally, I much prefer the brass dry zippers, as they appear to be much more robust. In Tim’s pictures of Space X’s Space Suit, I don’t see any such airtight zippers anywhere. In fact, the only zippers I see are those very delicate zippers that are normally found in polyester garments. They don’t look robust at all. I certainly wouldn’t be willing to bet my life on those holding, especially since nearly every garment I’ve ever had with such zippers, those zippers have failed.
The Japanese invented at least two types of airtight zippers quite a few years ago. There is an interesting article about zip fasteners on Wikipedia, and a web search will yield more information.
Fake X …. that suit will go well with their CGI car in “space”
The CGI car complemented the real one which was independently tracked for a few days by various astronomers. If you ever have the chance (I don’t, but a friend did), then go and watch a rocket launch. If the day or night is clear, and you take binoculars, you might be able to watch from launch until well after staging, at a height of 70+ kilometres for SpaceX launches, and at more than 100 km for some others.
If you can find anyone who is a radio ham, ask them to show you how satellite communications work. The antenna often needs pointing directly at the satellite for its signal to be heard. Through it, you will see and hear communication with other amateurs who can be thousands of miles away, and with high altitude satellites (thousands of miles away from the planet’s surface), almost halfway around the planet.* With those higher orbit satellites, you will also hear a measurable time delay between transmission and reception. With any satellite that is moving in relation to the station, you will also witness Doppler shift on the received signal, often by several kiloHertz. From that shift, and the receive frequency, you can calculate how fast the satellite is approaching or receding (up to about 8km/sec, or 5 miles per second).
A few hams are also equipped with transceivers and antennas which allow them to ‘bounce’ radio signals off the Moon. If you’re lucky enough to know someone with that kit, you might hear the ~2.5 second time delay between transmission and reception of the ransmitted signal. From that delay, and knowing that the speed of light (which you can measure for yourself quite easily) is ~300,000 km/s or ~186,000 miles per second, you can calculate how far away the Moon is from the station. It’s around 400,000 kilometres (250,000 miles) away. I’ve seen it done on several occasions, and it’s interesting to confirm for yourself what the textbooks say.
*Of course, no direct communication is possible through a single satellite between stations which are on opposite sides of the globe. The satellite has to be above the horizon, as seen by both stations. That’s also why satellite TV antennas have to point at a satellite which is above your horizon.