Flying Naked – A Cost Benefit Analysis of the Use of Pressure Suits in Suborbital Spaceflight
- Paper number
IAC-13,D6,1,10,x20185
- Author
Mr. Charles Lauer, Rocketplane Global, Inc., United States
- Year
2013
- Abstract
To paraphrase Shakespeare, “To suit or not to suit, that is the question. Whether tis nobler to . . .” Suborbital spaceflight vehicle developers and operators are now facing the choice of whether or not to include the use of personal pressure suits as part of the standard equipment package for flight crews and customers. All suborbital vehicles now in development of course include cabin pressurization and life support systems as part of the vehicle equipment. However, several companies are also choosing to use newly developed commercial emergency pressure suits as safety equipment in addition to the vehicle pressurization systems. The engineering systems tradeoff is neither simple nor obvious. On one hand, emergency pressurization suits have been standard issue on 100% of all orbital human spaceflight for decades. The Shuttle orange Pumpkin Suits and the white with blue piping of the Russian Sokol suit are iconic. A catastrophic loss of pressurization during launch can kill the occupants of a space vehicle in minutes and cause loss of consciousness in seconds. However, in any 100 km suborbital spaceflight the total duration of exposure to the near vacuum altitudes above 50,000 feet altitude is less than 20 minutes and the time spent in the weightless vacuum of space is less than 5 minutes.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-13,D6,1,10,x20185.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.