- 2 days ago
Category
馃摵
TVTranscript
00:00Para un hombre que trabaja en el espacio, debe tener una espaceta.
00:11Es proteger el astronauta de la vacuaci贸n de la atm贸sfera,
00:15sirviendo ox铆geno y insulaci贸n de los extremos de calor y calor.
00:20La espaceta tiene un modo de comunicaci贸n con el mundo exterior,
00:24y debe permitir la libertad de movimientos.
00:27La espaceta moderna es el resultado de una larga y compleja evoluci贸n.
00:57Long before humans had traveled to space, aviators wanted to fly at heights that could not support life.
01:07En 1932, Auguste Picard flew above 16,000 meters in a helium-filled balloon.
01:17To stay alive, Picard ascended in an aluminium pressure vessel fed with compressed air.
01:22Spanish aviator Emilio Herreras came up with a different solution.
01:28In the United States, aviator Wiley Post had supercharged his plane, the Winnie Mae.
01:41It could fly at 15,000 meters, where the jet streams blow.
01:46Post knew he could save fuel and fly faster at that height.
01:50So, with the help of tire maker BF Goodrich, he devised the first serviceable pressure suit.
02:00At this time, even military aircraft were flying at much lower altitudes,
02:05where the use of a simple oxygen mask was enough to ensure pilot efficiency.
02:09However, as jet power was introduced, operational ceilings lifted.
02:16At high altitudes, low ambient air pressure meant the oxygen mask would lift off the face
02:22when oxygen was fed to the pilot at pressures high enough to sustain life.
02:26When bombers like the B-36 began long-duration missions at high altitudes,
02:36they adopted pressurized crew compartments.
02:40Yet the pressure suit, with a fully enclosed helmet,
02:44was necessary as sudden cabin depressurization could be lethal.
02:49In the 1950s, partial pressure suits became common.
02:52They had inflatable capstans that stopped blood draining to the legs
02:56under heavy G-forces, avoiding blackouts.
03:00Air crews hated them,
03:02but figures showed they functioned more effectively when wearing them.
03:07In 1955, a unique American spy plane made its first flight.
03:14The following year, the U-2 began reconnaissance missions over the Soviet Union.
03:19Flying at 21,000 meters, it was beyond the range of Soviet radar,
03:24and neither jet fighters nor missiles could reach it.
03:30Pilots flying the U-2 wore a new partial pressure suit, the MC-3.
03:36Rather than save a pilot's life in case of sudden depressurization,
03:40this suit was designed to be under pressure throughout the mission.
03:44Without it, the pilot's blood would boil.
03:49As missile technology developed,
03:53it appeared that human beings would be dispensed with as a weak link,
03:56not able to cope with conditions imposed by the technology.
04:04But the U.S. Air Force had different ideas.
04:08They felt that a pilot could make better decisions than a guidance system,
04:11and they began a research program using hypersonic aircraft
04:15to learn about the problems associated with ultra-high speed,
04:20ultra-high altitude operations.
04:22The culmination of this program was represented by the X-15,
04:28a rocket-powered aircraft that could fly to the edge of the atmosphere.
04:34Because of its limited fuel load,
04:36the X-15 was launched from beneath a B-52 bomber
04:40at an altitude of 15,000 meters.
04:47The cabin of the X-15 was pressurized with nitrogen
04:50to reduce the risk of fire.
04:53For the pilot,
04:54a new full-pressure flight suit,
04:56known as the XMC-2,
04:58was developed.
04:59It too was pressurized with nitrogen.
05:01A neck dam excluded the nitrogen from the helmet,
05:05which was fed with oxygen for life support.
05:11This suit was the predecessor of NASA's most important space suits.
05:19The X-15 set the speed record for a powered aircraft
05:23at well above 7,000 kilometers per hour,
05:26and the altitude record at just over 107,000 meters.
05:32The first real space suit
05:34was worn by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
05:38In 1961, aboard Vostok 1,
05:41he became the first man to orbit the Earth.
05:44His suit, the SK-1,
05:46was to protect against capsule depressurization
05:49and to sustain him during ejection from his craft.
05:53The Vostok cosmonauts had to parachute to the ground
05:56because their capsules landed too heavily.
06:02Since 1959,
06:04the newly formed U.S. space agency, NASA,
06:07had been working towards launching an American into space.
06:12Seven test pilots had been selected
06:14as the Mercury program's first group of astronauts.
06:18The first attempt would be a short hop,
06:21as the only booster available at the time,
06:23the Redstone lacked the power to reach orbit.
06:28An important part of the preparation
06:30involved the development of a space suit.
06:37As a starting point,
06:39NASA looked at the XMC-2 used for X-15 flights
06:42and the Navy's aviation pressure suit,
06:45the Mark IV.
06:46Both were full pressure suits.
06:56NASA decided that the Mark IV suit,
06:59worn here by Alan Shepard,
07:01was lighter
07:02and could be more easily modified for space flight.
07:05The boot leather and the suit's grey outer covering
07:10would be replaced by aluminised nylon
07:12for greater thermal control,
07:15and the helmet's rubber diaphragm
07:16surrounding the face was eliminated,
07:19with oxygen now entering via a hose at the waist
07:21to help cool the suit.
07:23For all six manned Mercury missions,
07:29the Mark IV suit performed well,
07:31but the demands placed upon it were modest.
07:34Like most pressure suits at the time,
07:36it served as a backup
07:37in the event of cabin pressure failure.
07:40Because this never happened on the Mercury flights,
07:43this suit was only ever pressurised at launch.
07:45In the early 1960s,
07:52the Soviet Union's space programme
07:53was achieving an impressive list of firsts.
07:56For the United States,
07:58this was a source of national embarrassment.
08:01In 1961,
08:02the new president, John Kennedy,
08:04had boldly proclaimed
08:05that America should land a man on the moon
08:08before the end of the decade,
08:10and NASA was flooded with funds.
08:13This was the beginning of the space race.
08:15I don't think we ought to waste any money,
08:17but I think we ought to do the job.
08:19And this will be done in the decade of the 60s.
08:22The Mercury programme was terminated early,
08:25in favour of a more complex series of missions,
08:28with the aim of solving problems
08:30associated with sending a man to the moon.
08:34The Gemini programme made use of a new two-man capsule
08:38boosted to orbit atop a modified nuclear missile.
08:41Gemini required a new suit with new capabilities.
08:47NASA now understood future missions
08:49would have to last much longer.
08:52Suits would have to be more comfortable,
08:54and astronauts would have to leave their spacecraft
08:57in the vacuum of space.
08:59Gemini controllers were planning the first spacewalk.
09:02In the less open Soviet Union,
09:07they were also preparing for a spacewalk.
09:10Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was practising
09:13with an inflatable canvas airlock
09:15in temporary weightlessness
09:16in an aircraft in a parabolic flight path.
09:19He was wearing a new spacesuit, the Berkut,
09:25designed to function outside his Voskod spacecraft.
09:30The airlock was needed because the new Voskod
09:33still did not have solid-state electronics.
09:36Its thermionic valves needed air cooling
09:38so the capsule could not be evacuated.
09:40In March 1965, Alexei Leonov left the airlock
09:51on Voskod 2 to float freely in space.
09:55It was another first for the Soviet Union.
09:59Soon, his Berkut spacesuit began ballooning
10:02to such an extent that Leonov could not reach
10:05his camera's shutter release positioned on his leg.
10:07It was not until after the fall of the Soviet Union
10:12that the full story became known.
10:15The Berkut spacesuit had expanded so much
10:18that Leonov could not get back inside.
10:21Only by venting his spacesuit
10:22could the cosmonaut regain entry to the Voskod capsule.
10:28Back at NASA, they heard that Leonov's spacewalk
10:32had been a resounding success.
10:34But they felt the Gemini program was catching up.
10:37In June 1965, astronauts Jim McDivitt and Ed White
10:43were preparing for the world's second spacewalk.
10:55Gemini 4's launch went smoothly
10:57and on the third orbit, Ed White left the capsule.
11:04Although they didn't know it,
11:06the greater sophistication of the Gemini craft
11:09made this spacewalk much simpler
11:11than Alexei Leonov's just two months earlier.
11:14It was easy to depressurize the entire capsule,
11:19so no airlock was needed
11:21and Ed White's spacesuit was fed through an umbilical
11:24connected to the spacecraft.
11:27Leonov carried his own oxygen in a backpack
11:29that made re-entry to the Voskod capsule
11:31that much harder.
11:33Within the structure of the Gemini suit
11:38was a mesh that prevented the ballooning problem
11:41experienced during the Russian spacewalk.
11:47The first American spacewalk went so well
11:49that NASA assumed working in space
11:52presented few obstacles.
11:54White's joyride in space
11:56gave no indication of the difficulties that lay ahead.
11:59The Gemini program had a number of goals
12:09and in December 1965,
12:12Gemini 6A and Gemini 7 achieved two of them,
12:16rendezvous and long-duration flight.
12:20The crew of Gemini 7 remained in orbit for 14 days.
12:25Mission planners knew that staying in a spacesuit
12:27for two weeks would be a challenge.
12:29So a new version of the G3C spacesuit called the G5C
12:33was worn by the Gemini 7 astronauts.
12:36It replaced the pressure helmet with a zippered hood
12:39and Frank Borman and Jim Lovell
12:42became the first people to remove their spacesuits in flight.
12:49New technologies were being pioneered in the Gemini spacecraft
12:52and problems with the new systems often meant Gemini flights were only partially successful.
12:59The capsule had to be capable of far more complex manoeuvres than its predecessor
13:03and longer-duration missions required fuel cell technology for electric power.
13:08In March 1966, Gemini 8 had successfully rendezvoused and then docked with a target vehicle.
13:20But a thruster problem sent the linked craft into a spin.
13:24The mission was immediately terminated.
13:26The scheduled spacewalk did not take place and the craft landed in the Pacific,
13:33half a world away from the planned landing area.
13:35Three months later, Gemini 9 could not dock
13:41because its target vehicle's fairing had not been jettisoned.
13:45The scheduled spacewalk went disastrously wrong.
13:48When Gene Cernan inflated his suit, it did not want to bend.
13:51Exhaustion and a fogging space helmet saw Cernan called back inside.
14:00He was overheating.
14:05Training for a spacewalk was limited to brief periods of weightlessness in an aircraft
14:10or being suspended in a special jig that moved via an air suspension system across a smooth floor.
14:17Neither provided anything like the real thing.
14:23Engineers had realized that the current generation of spacesuit worked well sitting in a spacecraft.
14:30But when doing strenuous work, its air cooling system was inadequate.
14:35New designs were already in train.
14:38The next two Gemini flights both failed to demonstrate
14:41that an astronaut in a spacesuit could do meaningful work in space.
14:47Before the final Gemini flight, a new training simulation was tried.
14:55A mock-up of the Gemini craft docked to an Agena target vehicle
14:59was built in the McDonough School indoor pool.
15:03An approximation of the true weightless environment,
15:06it allowed astronaut Buzz Aldrin to train for extended periods.
15:13Handholds were fitted to the outside of the spacecraft
15:15and the extravehicular work assignments on Gemini 12 were a complete success.
15:22It gave NASA planners the confidence to move to the Apollo program
15:26and the final stages in America's progress to its moon landing.
15:30By 1966, it was apparent that Apollo was well behind schedule.
15:42The first manned flight of the program had been delayed by almost a year
15:46because of developmental problems with the Apollo spacecraft.
15:51NASA was rushing to meet the 1969 moon landing deadline set by President Kennedy,
15:56and privately some in the astronaut corps felt that the hurry was not good
16:01for the development of a new capsule.
16:09NASA had flagged changes to later models of the spacecraft,
16:14but the early Block 1 version would still carry a crew in the first manned mission
16:18to test systems in Earth orbit.
16:22A new space suit was being developed for use on the later moon missions,
16:27but it would not be ready for Apollo 1,
16:29whose astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee
16:33would wear a slightly different version of the Gemini GC4 suit.
16:38All American spacecraft had been pressurized with pure oxygen.
16:44This had weight-saving benefits,
16:46and by exclusion of nitrogen found in natural air,
16:50the danger of bubbles forming in the bloodstream
16:52during rapid decompression was eliminated.
16:56Though the pure oxygen environment presented a fire danger,
17:00nobody had thought to check the real risks.
17:03In January 1967, less than a month before the scheduled launch date,
17:10the Apollo 1 crew were in their capsule under simulated launch conditions
17:14with the craft being tested under its own power.
17:18A spark triggered a fire, and in seconds the crew were dead.
17:23The inquiry into the fire found the astronauts had died of asphyxiation
17:27from carbon monoxide.
17:28Both the spacesuits and the cabin made extensive use of combustible materials.
17:36For the program to continue, everything would have to be redesigned.
17:44Research into the problems associated with a spacesuit
17:47that could be used on the moon had been going on since 1962.
17:53The new suit had to be rugged.
17:55Designers were still not sure what the lunar surface would present.
18:01All previous suits had been fed with oxygen and power from an external source.
18:06The moon suit had to be self-contained,
18:09and the backpacks applying life support presented problems.
18:14The backpacks' dimensions and weight were determined by extensive testing,
18:19and designers of the life support, battery and communication systems
18:23worked within strict parameters.
18:28After the Apollo 1 tragedy, flammable components had been removed,
18:33and an outer layer of beta cloth, of woven silica fiber,
18:37coated with teflon, was added.
18:39Many different ways of simulating the moon's one-sixth gravity were trialled.
18:47Finally, the A7L suit emerged.
18:51Beneath the outer layer, a tight-fitting suit with elbow, wrist and knee joints
18:55of a bellows-like structure that maintained equal volume when bent,
19:00allowed freedom of movement absent in previous suits.
19:03Beneath the pressure suit, a light, open-weave layer was networked
19:10with fine tubes circulating cooling water.
19:13This carried away excess body heat that earlier air-cooled suits had not coped with.
19:19The pressure suit and the outer protective layer were joined together,
19:23with the inner cooling garment remaining separate.
19:25On Earth, the whole suit weighed 35 kilograms,
19:31with the backpack a further 60 kilograms.
19:35It was the A7L that went to the moon
19:37with the first three successful Apollo lunar missions,
19:41and it performed flawlessly.
19:44It continued to evolve as subsequent missions became more demanding.
19:48The moon suit was robust,
19:52and Apollo astronauts had complete confidence in it.
19:56No lunar mission ever had a problem with the space suit.
20:07We have many new missions, though.
20:10With the arrival of the space shuttle,
20:12NASA was expecting to do serious work in orbit,
20:15and it needed a new space suit.
20:20The Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or EMU,
20:24is a direct descendant of the Apollo A7L.
20:28Its main difference is the rigid upper torso.
20:32Because they are used in a weightless environment,
20:35the new suits could be heavier than the Apollo suit,
20:38which operated in lunar gravity.
20:40The EMU is not custom-tailored for each user.
20:43Components are made in a range of sizes and are interchangeable.
20:48Parts are intended to have a useful life of around 15 years.
20:56With the shuttle,
20:58NASA envisioned servicing satellites in low Earth orbit.
21:01But first, it had to learn how to do simple tasks.
21:06New technologies were combined with the space suit.
21:09In 1984,
21:11astronaut Bruce McCandless,
21:13using the manned maneuvering unit,
21:15flew independently beside the space shuttle Challenger.
21:18After four hours, he returned safely.
21:23The MMU was used for satellite recovery on two subsequent occasions,
21:28with mixed results.
21:31After the Challenger disaster,
21:33NASA reviewed all aspects of safety,
21:35and the MMU was retired as too risky.
21:38A simpler technique emerged.
21:42With foot restraints on the shuttle's robotic arm,
21:45astronauts could be moved accurately to a site
21:48and have a stable work platform.
21:55In 1990,
21:56the Hubble Space Telescope was launched.
21:59Unlike other satellites,
22:00Hubble was designed to be visited by the space shuttle
22:03for regular maintenance and upgrades.
22:07Over a 16-year span,
22:09there were five servicing missions to the telescope,
22:12the first being to fix an error in its manufacture.
22:18Each servicing mission called for long and complex spacewalks.
22:25The EVAs were all thoroughly rehearsed
22:28in NASA's neutral buoyancy laboratory.
22:33The astronauts are weighted,
22:35so that they neither rise nor sink,
22:38and all the large components that they handle
22:40are similarly neutral.
22:43Astronauts still have the perception of up and down
22:46in neutral buoyancy,
22:48unlike in weightlessness.
22:51In 1998, work commenced on the International Space Station,
22:56a collaboration between the US, Russia,
22:59Europe, Japan and Canada.
23:01This was the type of project
23:03for which the space shuttle had been designed,
23:06and the expertise that NASA's astronaut corps had gained
23:09was to be put to use for on-orbit construction.
23:13As the space station grew,
23:15the EMU spacesuit was refined.
23:17Increased battery capacity was added
23:19so that small heaters in the gloves
23:21could keep astronauts' fingers warm
23:23during passages through the Earth's shadow.
23:25A new safety system was added to the EMU suits.
23:31Called SAFER,
23:32the simplified manoeuvring system
23:34is designed for emergencies
23:35in the rare event that a spacewalker
23:38becomes untethered from the space station.
23:40It was first tested in 1994,
23:44but it has never been used for an actual emergency.
23:51With the completion of the ISS in 2011,
23:54the space shuttle was retired.
23:56This meant sole access to the orbiting laboratory
23:59was via the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
24:02Cosmonauts and astronauts
24:03wear the Russian Sokol flight suit
24:06during trips to and from orbit.
24:11For maintenance and repair sorties outside the ISS,
24:16crew will wear either the EMU
24:18or the Russian Orland space suit.
24:21Many of the Europeans on board
24:22have training in the use of both.
24:25The Orland space suit is very practical,
24:28designed to be serviced on the space station.
24:31It has a rigid torso
24:33with the helmet and visor joined to the suit
24:35and access is via a rear hatch.
24:39Cosmonauts wear a water-cooled undergarment
24:41similar to the American suit.
24:47Unlike the American suit,
24:49the Orland can be put on in just five minutes.
24:52In the MKS,
24:53the latest version of the Orland,
24:55a cosmonaut can safely remain outside
24:57for seven hours.
24:58And finally,
25:02NASA is working on a new generation suit
25:04to meet its future needs.
25:06Called the PXS for Prototype Exploration Suit,
25:09it also features a rear-entry hatch.
25:13The PXS has a more advanced life support system
25:15and is lighter.
25:18A different version called the Z-2
25:21is being developed for use on the surface of Mars.
25:24It allows a greater range of movement
25:27and its life support system
25:29will take less time to recharge,
25:31although neither suit has yet been used
25:33in conjunction with its life support backpack.
25:36number 5
25:37of Mars.
25:38Measured
25:39number 5
25:41beginning
25:41of Papien
25:42number 6
25:44amount.
25:46Atlantic
25:47Cover
25:483
25:48it
25:49number 6
25:49it
26:06CC por Antarctica Films Argentina
Comments