Suited for a Vacuum

The big new boosters that rocketeers are racing to build may soon toss a man all the way to the moon, or out into the vast reaches between the planets. But though their spaceships are well advanced, scientists are still struggling with the problem of what the far-traveling astronaut ought to wear when he takes the big trip. It is far from a question of style; it is a straightforward matter of survival.

Out in the vacuum of space, the properly suited explorer will have to be equipped with clothing that will let him work and move about actively. Outside a spaceship, where he may be called upon to make repairs, he will have to maneuver in zero gravity; his clothing will have toward off solar heating twice as strong as on the earth's surface. Any space suit will have to be equipped with a portable oxygen supply and its own air-conditioning apparatus.

Such problems have long since been solved by science fictioneers, but not in real life. But the Hamilton Standard division of United Aircraft has come as close as anyone. Designed for use by astronauts of the Apollo moon project, Hamilton Standard's space suit is made of several layers of rubber-impregnated fabric interlaced with ducts and supporting wires. Put in a vacuum chamber for testing with no one inside it, the suit was "flown" up to simulated altitudes as high as 130,000 ft. It stiffened and swelled, its arms spread outward like a gorilla's, but it did not burst. Next stage was to take the suit up to altitude with a living man inside it, and that man was taking a considerable chance. If a sudden leak had developed at 130,000 ft., the pressure inside would have fallen quickly to the point where human blood boils and death is almost instantaneous. But all went well, and the man could walk on a treadmill and use his arms with reasonable ease.

The next tests will take place in a new vacuum chamber that can duplicate both the cold of space and the merciless heat of the unshielded sun. If the suit survives those trials, it will be ready for Apollo.

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