When it comes to the human space field, we have to talk about spacesuits , which guarantee the life safety of astronauts and are called "sharp weapons" in the aerospace field.
Did you want to be an astronaut when you were a child?
Today, let’s reveal the process of spacesuit production. After reading it, you will know why only three countries, China, the United States and Russia, can produce it in the world today.
The importance of space suits
From the rise of the aerospace field to the present, only a few decades have passed, and every step humans take in space has been unknown and fatal.
The space environment is even worse than people imagined. As early as ancient times, people discovered that there is likely to be no oxygen in space.
Modern astronomers have verified this statement through repeated observations.
In addition to the absence of oxygen, space is still a vacuum environment . As we all know, there is a certain proportional relationship between air pressure and boiling point.
Therefore, if the human body is directly exposed to space, it will immediately die due to body fluids boiling.
This is a bloody lesson
Not only that, there are high and low temperatures in space. The temperature of the side exposed to solar radiation rises to several hundred degrees Celsius, and the temperature of the side facing away from the sun almost reaches absolute zero.
Moreover, the gravity-free environment makes it impossible for humans to walk freely in space. Once they are separated from the constraints of the spacecraft, it will be a dangerous thing.
No earthly creatures can survive in the harsh space .
In order to explore space, humans initially launched several unmanned probes, and later placed animals in the spacecraft.
The Laika dog who sacrificed his life for the aviation industry
Facts have proved that as long as the construction of the spacecraft is perfect enough, living things can survive in it.
Why can't we imitate the spaceship and create a piece of clothing with the same attributes and functions? The
spacesuit was born. The spacesuit is also called the miniature spaceship because it has most of the latter's functions.
Space suit structure
Small spacecraft
Space suits are further subdivided into cabin use and extravehicular use. There are certain differences in construction standards according to different use scenarios.
The spacesuits used in the cabin are more snug and less bulky. This is because astronauts need to perform various tasks and carry out normal activities in the cabin, and lightweight spacesuits can reduce their burden.
And the environment inside the cabin is relatively much better, so there is no need for such high requirements.
The extravehicular spacesuits have stricter production standards , including heat insulation systems, oxygen systems, etc. In short, they can overcome all problems of direct exposure to space.
Domestic flying extravehicular spacesuit
Extravehicular spacesuit is the one that can truly test the technological level of a country. It is mainly divided into six layers.
The first layer is the inner layer. Considering that astronauts may produce a lot of sweat and other dirt in their daily life, and the inner layer is close to the astronauts, it is made of soft cotton knitted material with good adsorption. The inner layer of
has almost no technical content and is entirely for the comfort of astronauts. The second layer of
is the thermal layer , which was developed to cope with the super cold environment of space. It uses materials with good warmth retention such as wool and synthetic fibers, and also does not have too much technical content.
The third layer is the heat insulation layer. This layer is the top priority of the space suit and is also an important criterion for classifying the level of national power.
The Shen 7 spacesuit in the cabin
It can not only provide heat insulation, but also prevent the entry of various harmful radiation, which is of great practical value.
You must know that in space without atmospheric protection, harmful radiation may appear at any time, and the heat insulation layer is the key to ensuring the safety of astronauts.
Radiation is everywhere in the universe
The heat insulation layer mainly uses aluminized polyimide film or polyester film as raw materials. They are synthetic materials and are widely used in production and life.The technical difficulty of
is how to produce materials that meet the standards of space suits, which has strict requirements for synthesis technology. The fourth layer of
is the heat dissipation layer . It is mainly used to adjust the astronaut's body temperature when it is too high. It is a constant temperature system in the space suit.
Human body core temperature
This layer mainly uses raw materials such as polyvinyl chloride . The raw materials are stable and can cope with high and low temperature environments, and are also quite effective in regulating temperature.
The polyvinyl chloride used to make space suits is different from ordinary materials and has higher stability.
The fifth layer is an airtight isolation layer, which is mainly used to adjust the air pressure difference between the spacesuit and space. It not only has an isolation effect, but also ensures that there is pressure around the astronauts at all times.
Considering that pressurization may affect the movement of astronauts, designers usually perform special processing at the intersection of structures. The sixth layer of
is the shell layer of , which is also the technical difficulty. It directly faces the harsh environment of space and has very high requirements.
must not only be fireproof, resistant to high and low temperatures, but also prevent various cosmic rays, and must also have considerable wear resistance.
takes into account the influence of color and light and heat absorption, and usually chooses white or gold.
Apollo moon landing
In addition, there are helmets, gloves, etc. used by astronauts, all of which meet relevant standards and have high requirements.
More importantly, how to combine these technologies has also become an issue for scientists to consider.
In terms of construction cost, a space suit can even be comparable to half a rocket.
my country previously announced the cost of manufacturing space suits, with a huge figure of 30 million yuan written on it.
Producing rockets and spacecrafts is inherently a money-consuming task, but also building space suits that meet standards is difficult to achieve without strong financial support.
It can be seen that there are only three countries that can build space suits, and it is not without reason.
Finally, there are many "small parts" used to make a spacesuit, and the production process is also quite complicated.
Space suit parts
In order to make a spacesuit, the United States has mobilized more than 80 manufacturers with relevant technologies to produce fine parts day and night. Each part of
must produce multiple substitutes for and , and then compare these substitutes to select the best among the best. After the assembly of
is completed, the spacesuit must be put into related tests, such as pressure test, high temperature test, etc.
American extravehicular spacesuit)
Once it fails, it means that part of the resources invested in the early stage will be in vain, and everything will have to start from scratch.
can only be worn by astronauts after it has undergone various technical polishing.
Therefore, in the decades of human spaceflight, there have been few spaceflight accidents caused by spacesuits.
Behind the perfect spacesuit are countless skilled workers testing and assembling it day and night.
The development of space suits
The space suits we see today have also gone through a long process of development and have been gradually improved.
In the earliest days, an adventurer flew a plane to an altitude of 10,000 meters in order to break the skydiving record. He jumped off wearing clothes that could isolate the outside environment.
Felix jumps to the earth
In the 1960s, NASA successfully developed a space suit based on the design ideas of the adventurer's clothes.
Due to the failure to consider comfort, the astronauts looked particularly bloated after wearing them, which was not conducive to activities.
Since then, scientists have polished the structure of the spacesuit and developed the third-generation spacesuit, which was the spacesuit worn by Armstrong when the Apollo landed on the moon.
This garment greatly improves mobility and places many necessary items in the integrated storage box on the back. However,
still looks bloated because it does not streamline the design structure.After repeated research on
, scientists found that the structure had almost reached a bottleneck, so they worked hard on cost, continued to improve, and reduced costs.
The lower the cost, the better.
Future space suits will also develop in the direction of portability and aesthetics. While having higher practicality, they conform to people's aesthetic characteristics and are also cheap.
believes that in the near future, even ordinary people will have access to space suits.
