Re: cheap lunar gear & base (spin-off of superhero flight)

On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 01:59:30 +0100, Mike Williams
<nospam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>Wasn't it Leonard Erickson who wrote:
>
>>Third, cheap pressure suit for any visitors she might haul up there.
>
>Definitely not. Space suits will never be cheap. You can't convert 
>something like a deep sea diving suit into a space suit because it will 
>end up like a suit-shaped balloon. The guy inside can't bend the arms 
>and legs because the pressure inside the suit is forcing it into a 
>preferred configuration.
>
>The best you might be able to achieve for a reasonable price is some 
>sort of rigid container, like a toughened zorb ball or an iron lung. 
>However, they're not going to be cheap either, and the iron lung exceeds 
>your carrying capacity.

Well, I know that the old USAF high altitude suits (which worked at
100,000 feet) showed up as surplus from time to time. Those ought to
be usable. Though making sure they are still up to snuff could get
interesting.

As for the rigid container bit, there are existing designs for "rescue
balls" which amount to a fabric bag you crawl into, zip shut behind
you and have an air supply and some stuff to deal with CO2 and excess
humidity. 

An iron lung is overkill.