NASA spacesuits are being launched in the name of science

The suits worn by NASA astronauts undergo high-impact ballistic tests in order to assess their resistance to objects in space. Yes, we wrote a delightful sentence to basically claim that the astronauts’ suits were launched by the US space agency.

And don’t think these tests are about any shot, but rather a 40-foot-wide weapon, which fires steel bearings at about 915 meters per second — in short, 2.5 times faster than the speed of sound.

publicity celebrity

Read also

The physical integrity test of spacesuits, despite the jokes, has a very important aspect: stray objects are projected into space at very high speeds, and as one of the missing things there is the sound (because it comes out in the air, well, there is no air in space), most of the time, A crash occurs without any warning.

It is for this reason that we “observe” space, not “hear”.

In most cases, such collisions occur against structures such as the outer surface of the rocket. However, knowing that astronauts’ suits also protect them from this (to an extent, let’s face it: there’s not much clothing protection against an asteroid a meter in diameter) lends itself to more external action – such as walking into the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) .

“If we have a compact body [como um traje espacial]Any leak could be catastrophic depending on its size and speed, said Mike Pereira, technical chief of NASA’s Ballistic Impact Laboratory. “Conducting this type of testing is critical to a variety of NASA’s flight activities, as well as space exploration missions, to ensure the durability of equipment and materials.”

The tests were conducted in a vacuum environment in order to simulate lunar conditions, with the effect recorded in ultra-slow-motion cameras. With no air resistance, the projectiles were fired at a speed closer to the truth, causing more impact.

All of these tests are part of the approval needed to use spacesuits for astronauts on Project Artemis missions, which will return humans to the Moon. The prototypes correspond to the first clothing update in more than 40 years.

Don’t forget Olhar Digital will broadcast live, from 8:15 p.m. on Wednesday (15), the launch of the Inspiration4 (I4) mission, by SpaceX. Watch on our website YoutubeAnd Facebook social networking siteAnd InstagramAnd TwitterAnd LinkedIn NS tik tok.