Two Spacesuit Book Reviews

They still can't document radiation protection for space crews.

Jun 28, 2023

Fashioning Apollo and Lunar Outfitters. Image use CCL noncommercial use.

“Astronauts on the lunar surface could in reality be exposed to every kind of radiation – alpha, beta, microwave, x-ray, gamma, Bremsstrahlung, Cherenkov radiation, Askaryan radiation, high-energy protons and neutrons, galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and solar particle events (SPE).”

Lunar Geology And Ionizing Radiation from a Revisionist Perspective by Dr Bulcsu István Siklós

My interest in examining books on how the space suits were developed is to investigate the safety protections for astronauts exposed to deep space radiation. Radiation is a major hazard for space flight and for man’s continued exploration of space. If not for the earth’s magnetic field all life would cease to exist. Lack of solving the radiation problem was one of the events that stopped the Russians from continuing their program to land men on the moon.

As seen in the quote above, The various types of radiation and high energy particles are the biggest threat to astronaut’s safety in space travel and returning safely home. Yet often NASA downplays the enormity of the problem and more often expresses concern for solar flares as being the biggest radiation danger for crewmen in space. By doing so they ignore that danger that already exists. Even the astronauts in their books rarely mention the threat. How did NASA solve this problem? As the reader will see, NASA is still mum on this mystery.

What follows is an examination of two books on spacesuits and what the authors have uncovered about this issue.

Fashioning Apollo

A few years ago I covered and reviewed my first book NASA spacesuits, Fashioning Apollo by Nicholas de Monchaux. It’s a beautifully designed and printed book. The cover has a smooth texture that feels like rubber, which is a delight to hold and the photographs are superbly printed in exquisite detail and allowed to shine on coated paper stock. It’s a pleasure to know this quality of typography and offset printing is still being done.

However, the content left much to be desired at least for the things I was looking for, namely, radiation protection. The first thing I did was go to the index and was surprised to find the word radiation missing. Despite all the well documented history and details of space suit development that were well documented in this book, something this important for astronaut safety was completely ignored.

As were other issues such as the helmet, gloves and the portable life support system (PLSS) the astronauts used on the moon.

That is why I referred to this book in my review as an Empty Suit.

While the content did cover well the history of spacesuit development starting with deep sea divers, to fighter/test pilots much space could have been devoted to the suit and not veering off into issues such as 1960’s historical events, pop culture, Mission Control hardware, etc. Finally, Fashioning Apollo is that pretty book you place on your coffee table for guests to peruse through.

Lunar Outfitters

Now, here is a spacesuit book! The author Bill Ayrey knows his stuff having spent many years in spacesuit development and testing for the Space Shuttle and ISS astronauts. The book is encyclopedic in scope with a minutia of details telling everything you would want to know and then some. It stays on point. I was surprised to learn that the space suits were constructed with unique features for each astronaut’s specific mission even down the various layers of protection. So the astronauts of Apollo 11 got a different composition of layers than did the crew of Apollo 14 (p.320-324). While not as pretty as Fashioning Apollo, the depth of content surpasses everything. It may not be the pretty girl you took to the dance, but it will be the girl you stick it out with.

And yes, radiation is listed in the index. However, there are issues with that which will be discussed next.

The Helmet

I recall the first time I read in a NASA document on the spacesuit (link below) where they admitted the helmet was made out of polycarbonate. In other words plastic. Wow, the same material (though certainly finer) used in my toy space helmet I had as a boy! I thought then, as I do now, this has to be the weakest part of the suit. Everybody knows plastic is not a radiation shield. Also, the helmet features no thermal isolation for the moon’s extreme temperatures and for all of their concern over the micrometeor threat, the helmet offers no protection for high-speed particle impacts either. With one exception, the gold visor to block UV radiation to prevent blindness, dangerous radiation would still have flooded the thin polycarbonate shell and posed a significant health threat to the astronauts in deep space and on the lunar surface.

Spacesuit Environmental Protection

Basically a spacesuit has two major components, the inner suit called the pressure suit for allowing a person to survive in a vacuum; and the outer suit called a thermal micrometeoroid garment. That is the white suit we see in the Apollo space and moon photos and contains many composited layers of aluminized mylar film (p.97, p.99). This is to provide thermal protection for the extreme heat and cold temperatures on the moon and to absorb tiny, high speed (22k mph), micrometeors that may pose a threat.

While there are references to radiation in the index, for the purpose of defining radiation, the author lists only two types: solar and cosmic. Solar radiation is basically heat which the suit is isolated for. Cosmic radiation is a misnomer. The term here is so broadly applied by the author as to be misleading. As seen above in the quote of Dr Siklós, there are a diverse range of radiation types originating from a variety of sources. And only certain materials block certain types of radiation. And in this instance none of those materials—lead, concrete and water were used in the suit or for that matter, the space crafts either. And some radiation such as cosmic galactic rays (CGR), there is no shielding that blocks them. Which raises the question, how did NASA keep the astronauts safe outside of earth’s magnetic field? Is radiation shielding classified?

Nevertheless, whatever cosmic radiation is in this instance, as used by the author, mylar film is not going to fend off the dangers in a nuclear hazmat zone there is no shielding for nuclear radiation in the spacesuits used by the Apollo astronauts. Even more telling is Bill Ayrer’s comprehensive account of spacesuit development from the 1940’s to the space era where it’s quite apparent, there never was an intent to provide that type of shielding.

Father Of Space Medicine

Both books ignore the “father of space medicine” Dr Hubertus Strughold. (A villain's name if there ever was one.) He came over with the other group of nazi scientists in Operation Paperclip after the war. He had a database of knowledge on how high altitudes and vacuums affect the human body. Strughold was instrumental in developing life support systems and especially pressure suits for astronauts. And how did he achieve this data? By conducting medical and laboratory experiments on Dachau prisoners. To call this man a nazi psychopathic serial killer would be too kind. But NASA had to beat the Russians in the space race so the ends justify the means—any means. One mysterious thing is how Strughold was investigated by the US government three times for war crimes and these investigations led nowhere. Until US Army Intelligence documents from 1945 were released. A later uproar ensued and Strughold was stripped of his honors and had his name removed everywhere, including the International Space Hall of Fame.

In Closing

One of the biggest problems NASA needed to overcome, deep space radiation for crew safety in both the spacecrafts and suits, did not happen. So if men really went to moon and did these great heroic deeds, how did the avoid this major hazard? Were they using black budget technology? Or did the DOD actually and do the deed with unknown crews, the true unsung heroes, with NASA moon landings just a TV show?

Between the two, Lunar Outfitters is the superior book on NASA spacesuits, both in history, development and technical application. Written by a true expert with hands-on experience in testing spacesuits, Bill Ayrey gives the reader a sense of what it is like to step into one of these suits with his keen eye for detail. One has a feeling of being gifted insider information with this subject and in many ways the reader has. If you have an interest in spacesuits, Lunar Outfitters is the only book you will ever need.

Lunar Outfitters is unfortunately disappointing in the area of radiation because the issue is left unresolved. Ignoring the various subatomic particles and of waves and vaguely mentioning “cosmic” radiation to cover it does not properly address the issue. Namely, can these spacesuits have provided adequate safety from the many and varied radiation hazards? The answer is clearly no.

Endnotes

Besides the inner pressure suit and the outer thermal micrometeoroid garment there are other deeper layers such as the thin cooling garment fitted with water tubes to keep the astronaut from overheating. Plus various other gear such as urine and fecal bags, inner gloves and socks and communications gear.

On pages 225-227 in Lunar Outfitters, after Apollo 12’s return they decided to inspect Alan Bean’s suit by disassembling it for micrometeor damage and general wear and tear. They found no damage from micrometeorites. Apparently of little interest to the NASA team, they were not inclined to inspect the suit for radiation damage.

In my research I have found no reference to any Apollo suit that suffered micrometeor damage.

PLSS with oxygen tank on the left. Image use CCL noncommercial use.

The portable life support system (PLSS) was not given much detail in either book. There are several curious issues with it. One is the amount of oxygen available to the astronauts. It supplied 4 hours for missions 11-14. The pressure was increased from 1110 psi to 1500 psi increase oxygen output to 8 hours for missions 15-17. This was done without increasing the size of the tank, which resembles a large thermos. One diving tank in 30 ft of water lasts about an hour. If an air tank and last 8 hours on the moon, why not on earth?

8.3.24

I now have my third book on space suits called US Space Suits. Like the other two books mentioned here, this is the third book to make no mention of radiation shielding in the suits. A shame, because it’s an important issue and space radiation is a great hazard (besides the vacuum) to astronauts which is totally ignored. Why the secrecy?