Apr 08, 2021 08:00:00

Soichi Noguchi, who is staying at the International Space Station, explains the structure of SpaceX's spacesuit.

On April 5, 2021,

astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who is staying at the International Space Station (ISS) for a long time, released a video explaining the structure of the space suit of the spacecraft ' Crew Dragon' he boarded. ..

Astronaut Noguchi's Space Life 054 SpaceX Space Suit Commentary --YouTube


Soichi Noguchi et al. 4 astronauts November 16, 2020 local time, the United States, Florida Kennedy Space Center from, SpaceX toward the ISS with the spacecraft 'Crew Dragon' took off . After successfully docking with the ISS, Mr. Noguchi has been staying for a long time as it is, and for the new manned space flight mission by Crew Dragon scheduled for April 2021, Crew Dragon will be separated from the ISS. I was working on reconnecting to the dock.

This time, he brought a space suit from Crew Dragon to the ISS that he had never worn since the launch.

This is a suit bag containing a space suit. Mr. Noguchi's name is embroidered in kanji.

This is SpaceX's spacesuit. It is said that the helmet, gloves, and boots are all integrated.

The helmet is

made of polycarbonate and has an open front like a motorcycle helmet. In addition, this helmet was designed using a 3D printer.

There is a hole in the back and heel of the boot so that you can hook it on the seat of the spaceship and fix your body.

The chest is also embroidered with the characters of

JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) to which Mr. Noguchi belongs.

The crotch part of the space suit is wide open, and it is said that you can put your body in from here and wear it. It is designed to be closed with a zipper.

There are zippers on both wrists, and you can temporarily reach out from this part. You can also put on gloves later.

The surface is processed with

fluororesin to make it slippery when working inside the spacecraft.

Below that is a layer of fibers to maintain strength.

The innermost layer has a three-layer structure with a layer that maintains airtightness. The zipper that closes the layer that keeps the airtightness is colored red, and in order to prevent air leakage, it is necessary to close the zipper firmly to the position marked in white.

Mr. Noguchi says that after the actual wearing, a leak check will be performed to see if the zippers are tightly closed on both wrists and crotch.

The back looks like this. The back part is flat because it is important how smooth the back part including the buttocks is in order to cushion the impact when the spacecraft lands on the water.

The earphones are

inner ear type and are attached separately from the space suit.

There is one microphone on each side of the spacesuit.

Earphones and microphones are all connected to the spacecraft via the connector on the right foot.

When you remove the connector cover, it looks like this. The small circle on the left is the part that injects emergency oxygen, the rounded corner on the right is the part that injects cooling air, and the yellow metal part below is the electrical connector.

Mr. Noguchi says that he will release the actual wearing of this space suit at a later date.

By the way, the space suits for extravehicular activities of the ISS are as follows. Mr. Noguchi wore the following spacesuits and carried out extravehicular activities for 6 hours and 56 minutes for the fourth time in March 2021.

Mr. Noguchi has also released a video that talks about the situation at that time.

In addition to this, Mr. Noguchi has released many videos on his YouTube channel , such as videos that talk about everyday life on the ISS and videos of experiments. In addition, it seems that all shooting and editing are done by myself.