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This blog post is courtesy of Kit Matthew, The Children's Museum's Chief Science Educator. Kit helps infuse science throughout the museum by working alongside the exhibit and education departments, and by seeking out researchers and engineers who have interesting science stories and discoveries for us to share with visiting families.
Our bodies are finely tuned to life on Earth. You don’t even have to think about the fact that at any given moment every square inch of you is being pressed on by 14.7 pounds of atmospheric pressure–talk about having a lot of weight on your shoulders! Fortunately there is air inside our bodies balancing out that pressure, allowing us to survive on earth.
When we travel to extreme environments to explore unknown conditions—like outer space or deep in the ocean—our bodies have to contend with the changes in external pressure. Engineering is needed to create solutions to help balance the pressure and keep our bodies safe. Introducing… life support suits! (Think Tony Stark, according to a recent New York Times article.)
We called on our museum experts who have traveled to space—Extraordinary-Scientist-in-Residence/Former Astronaut, Dr. David Wolf—and deep in the ocean—Extraordinary Underwater Archaeologist in Residence, Dr. Charles Beeker—to weigh in on this new incredible technology and how it plays a pivotal role in essential research work that needs to take place in these extreme environments.
Dr. David Wolf and Dr. Charles Beeker
Exploration of outer space reached an extraordinary milestone with the Apollo 11 lunar mission in 1969 when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. How was that even possible in the thin atmosphere of outer space? What did that space suit really do for Armstrong to protect him and yet allow him to walk?
Now instead of journeying outwards away from earth, think about journeying deep under water. A similar problem needs to be solved—protecting the diver while allowing them movement to explore and do work. With the development of the advanced diving suit, much like Armstrong’s suit for outer space exploration, this becomes possible—a huge breakthrough!
These new atmospheric pressurized diving suits are being initially tested at depths limited to 1,000 feet, but in the future they could allow divers to go much deeper and work up to 2.5 days without surfacing!
There are a lot of moving parts that are required to protect from the extremes—both in space and in the ocean. We need:
• Oxygen delivered to our lungs at just the right pressure to fuel our tissues—too much or too little would have catastrophic consequences on your body and blood chemistry.
• Control over our body temperature from extremes of hot and cold—temperature can vary over 500 degrees in a matter of minutes.
• A very tough, tear resistant suit for working with heavy and sharp equipment.
• Reliable communications with our other team members
• Dexterity to move around and handle tools without quickly exhausting the diver or astronaut.
These are complex requirements to solve all at once. New products, like these suits, are cyclic—initial design, test models or prototypes, re-design, build the real thing, and adjust based on feedback from users under real conditions. Each iteration allows us to explore further and be more productive.
For example, this picture is a prototype spacesuit, called the AX-5, that NASA tested in the 1980's. For space it keeps the internal pressure above the much lower ambient pressure of space. It wasn't used in space, but it showed us how to build better suits like those now used on the International Space Station.
Oceans and space are oddly similar next frontiers! This new, exciting engineering helps us advance our knowledge in both extreme environments.
