NASA is pushing its lunar spacesuits to their boundaries. For their testing, engineers at the space agency’s Glenn Research Center’s Ballistic Impact Lab are firing at prototype spacesuits with a 40-foot air gun that fires steel ball bearings at 3,000 feet per second.
The speed of the gun is twice the speed of sound, and this testing is done in order to simulate extraterrestrial hazards like micrometeorite strikes. “If the object is pressurized, a leak can be catastrophic depending on how big and fast the leak is,” said Mike Pereira, the Ballistic Impact Lab’s technical lead, in a NASA statement. “Running this type of ballistic impact test is essential to a variety of NASA aeronautics and space exploration missions to ensure equipment and materials reliability.”
Simulating lunar conditions for testing
To better simulate our natural satellite, the team shot the ballistics in a near-vacuum and observed the impact with the help of high-speed cameras. The team is also trying to figure out construction materials future astronauts can use to build permanent structures for their stay.
In another test, the team dropped simulated Moon rocks onto spacesuit materials to determine the impact and their durability. Pereira and his team still crunching the data to understand the best fabrics and materials the space agency should use for its upcoming Artemis missions. It will important for long journeys to send American astronauts to the Moon.
What’s inside a spacesuit?
Recently, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet has shared a video offering a close look at the spacesuits that are used for spacewalks aboard the ISS. The video shows a chest-mounted panel that allows the wearer to maintain communications during spacewalks that can go on for several hours. The panel also controls ventilation and water systems that allow the astronaut to maintain a comfortable temperature, with everything powered by computers fitted on the backpack of the suit.
The spacesuit’s helmet packs cameras, a lighting system, and the “golden visor” that acts as a shield to an astronaut’s eyes from harsh sunlight. Circling Earth at a speed of 17,000 mph at an altitude of 250 miles, the astronauts experience a constant light every 45 minutes.
