Need for Spacesuits

With the development in technology and the growth in space travel, it was essential to develop pressurized flight suits for the pilots to adjust to the low atmospheric pressure and lack of oxygen at high altitudes. Mostly, these suits were designed to be used only when the cabin pressure failed.

Outer space, though very fascinating and luring for man, is very hostile to him. It is almost impossible to step outside a spacecraft with no or very little atmospheric pressure and oxygen. A space suit enables man to do so. However, without a spacesuit, man could suffer from the following:

• Unconsciousness within 15 seconds due to lack of oxygen.
• “Boiling” and then freezing” of blood and body fluids due to little or no air pressure.
• Expansion of tissues of the skin, heart and other internal organs because of the boiling fluids.
• Extreme changes in temperature:
• Sunlight: 248 degrees Fahrenheit / 120 degrees Celsius
• Shade: -148 F / -100 C
• Exposure to different types of radiation, like cosmic rays, and charged particles discharged from the sun ( solar wind).
• Small particles of dust or rock moving at high speeds (micrometeoroids) or orbiting debris from satellites or spacecraft could hit.

Let us see the basic requirements, which a space suit must satisfy