The test flight to 17,000 feet went flawlessly. The pressure suit (a) held pressure, (b) delivered breathing gas, (c) exhausted my exhaled carbon dioxide, (d) regulated my temperature with coolant flow, and (e) allowed enough mobility with the new convolute elbows that I could do the work I needed to do. Last year this time we were in an altitude chamber in Copenhagen, at a simulated altitude of 13,000 feet, where the function of the pressure suit gave my body a perceived altitude of only 8,500 feet. This time, we were at a real altitude of 17,000 feet, where the function of the pressure suit gave my body a perceived altitude of only 11,200 feet. All of this was a result of great work by the Pacific Spaceflight team in building the various systems, developing good procedures and checklists, and multiple test flight simulations that further refined our procedures. Could not have gone better! A transcript of the test flight, with some of my comments and reports, is shown in the two figures above.
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment