Dreamed of space since childhood: how a Russian engineer from New York makes space suits for NASA - ForumDaily
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Dreamed of space since childhood: how a Russian engineer from New York makes space suits for NASA

10 April scientists showed us the first photo of the black hole, and the US confirmed plans to send an expedition to the moon. This time with more serious intentions: take a picture against the background of the lunar landscape with the American flag.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Made by Russians

“In five years we will be there for sure and forever,” the space agency NASA confirmed, recalls Present Tense.

And not without the help of commercial companies, including - quite expectedly - SpaceX, and quite unexpectedly, Final Frontier Design, the company of Russian engineer Nikolai Moiseev. Perhaps it is in his gloves that astronauts will now collect lunar soil.

This is the story of a man who can assemble a real spacesuit at home.

If you imagine each step not as a step across the land of a country, a continent, or even a planet, but as a creature moving in the Universe, it will be clear in which dimension it counts each day of its life. Passionary of our small planet, approaching to it an incomprehensible cosmos by the power of its dream.

“My parents remembered what I wrote in my essays: I want to make spacesuits for Mars,” says space suit designer Nikolai Moiseev.

Photo: video frame Present Tense

This story began with the Strugatskys’ fantastic story “The Land of Crimson Clouds”, after reading which at the age of 10, Kolya Moiseev felt such an attraction to space that he first re-read all the books about it in all local libraries, and then easily entered the Moscow Aviation Institute. There, according to rumors, astronaut engineers were trained.

According to rumors, because then they entered the faculty of aircraft, only guided by the power of imagination. They acted almost blindly, and only then they understood where. Later, the students were told that there was a department, where they teach those who will do space suits.

On the subject: NASA canceled the first in the history of the two women in outer space due to the lack of the necessary spacesuits

And then by distribution - to the closed scientific enterprise "Zvezda". There Nikolai discovered the most vulnerable spot of the spacesuit and one of its most complex elements. This is a glove on which both the astronaut’s safety and his ability to operate with his hands depend.

Photo: video frame Present Tense

“I went to the authorities and said that I wanted to make gloves,” says Moiseev. “They looked at me dumbfounded, excited, happy, because no one wanted to do this, the tedious part, a lot of small details.” The glove is essentially like a separate space suit.”

The gloves of Soviet and Russian cosmonauts were made by the hand of Nicholas. Inventing, he came to such cosmic speeds that every five years a novelty from Moiseev flew into space. His unique gloves will then become the only part of the suit, which NASA will officially copy in the era of sharing secrets.

But in 90, its know-how cost nothing. Literally.

“I can say frankly - I was starving,” says Nikolai. “There wasn’t enough money, and I had two small children.”

He wrapped his feet in plastic bags for lack of shoes without holes, and went through the puddles to develop Martian boots. He worked as a taxi driver and installed roofs, finishing the Martian spacesuit. For four years he worked at night as a fireman.

“Over these four years, I became the leading designer of advanced spacesuits, while working part-time in a boiler room and not telling anyone about it,” Moiseev shares.

When the situation on Zvezda became unbearable, he simply left and created what entire institutes usually work on - a new spacesuit, alone.

Here it is, the world's first spacesuit made at home.

Photo: video frame Present Tense

And then - recognition in the USA at various industry competitions, grants and diplomas with the words “Russian boots are the best”. And he thought about moving.

In America, he became Nick Moses. In just two months, he received a green card as an outstanding scientist and researcher. He opened in New York a small firm Final Frontier Design, where four employees work. She entered the list of just a few companies that are jointly developing with NASA. On this short list are giants like Boeing and SpaceX.

Already under the contract with NASA made gloves for Mars, and over the Martian space suit is working.

“My development was slowed down by certain people, they say, there’s nothing, you’re nobody,” says Nikolai. “And despite this, I proved that I am something.”

Photo: video frame Present Tense

Everything that Nick Moses is talking about today plunges the average man into a state of weightlessness. For example, on the moon, he says, a person can become like a bird.

“A person with ordinary small wings will be able to fly without any motors. I'm working on it. Now it looks like a fairy tale, but the basis for these future flights is already being laid,” says Moiseev. — This is possible within 10 years. And Mars, probably after 10 years.”

“I want to fly to Mars,” the scientist admits. “But I’ll probably be old now...”

Photo: video frame Present Tense

But the happiness is that, unlike the passionaries of our small planet, the life of their discoveries can become much longer. Mars, scientists assure, will be a stage in the maturation of humanity. Intermediate - before starting a long journey.

On the subject: How Russian specialists work at NASA

Project Habr I found out what a spacesuit could be for landing on planets and satellites, what constitutes an ideal spacesuit and how difficult it can be to create a single glove for a “space suit”.

How did you get the idea to create a spacesuit company?

My partner Ted Southern, president of FFD, and I decided to try to work on a new type of spacesuit in 2010. Initially, and worked together. We had an interesting creative “fusion” of an engineer with an artist. My partner has an education: an artist, a sculptor, a materials scientist.

First we created an ordinary spacesuit, and then an innovative one. What's new in it? It is two times easier. Perhaps due to the fact that we work together, people with very different experiences, we managed to create such a spacesuit. The fact is that only engineers work at NASA and Roscosmos, there are no artists. The suit is high art, technological art. The body of a person can be described by an engineer, or an artist can recreate. And it will be different visions of the same object.

How much time passed from the idea to the first suit?

I developed the templates for the 2 week and another 2 week was spent on manufacturing. Of course, I already had a lot in my head, we didn’t do everything from scratch. I flew to New York, we said hello, I sat down at the table, designed the plan, and we made the spacesuit on time. Geriet Reisman, a senior SpaceX employee, an NASA astronaut, flew to us and we showed him our spacesuit.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Made by Russians

How much money was spent on the whole project of creating the first model of the spacesuit?

I want to divide the costs into two parts. The first part - the payment of materials, finished items (safety valve, pressure regulator, hoses). The second part is implicit. For example, my job. The first time I worked for free. This includes the cost of transportation costs, rental apartments, and more. Almost immediately it was decided to obtain a visa, received it in the category of "outstanding scientists", and then applied for a green card in the same category. All these expenses are included in the development, but they are really invisible. If you only count the materials, the costs amounted to all 600 dollars. We started to work together, and our work is the work of two people for a month.

And how much money would it take to create such a spacesuit from NASA?

These are hundreds of millions. I will give an example. NASA is currently developing a new ship for flights to asteroids and beyond. And even with their huge budgets, they decided to use space suits, which were developed for the Space Shuttle program, but with some modifications. Imagine - NASA decides not to make new spacesuits for the new ship because it is expensive for them.

Photo: video frame Present Tense

Have you ever thought about creating spacesuits to work on other planets and their satellites?

Recently we were approached by a group of game developers from Russia. They are now working on modeling the exploration of Mars, and then they want to begin the virtual exploration of Enceladus and Titan. And they asked us to advise on the creation of a spacesuit that would allow traveling on the surface of these Saturn satellites.

First of all, it is worth saying that these small planets are very, very different. Titan, for example, has a dense atmosphere of methane and ammonia. Atmospheric pressure at the surface of Titan is 1,46 times the Earth's atmosphere. The atmosphere of this small planet is not at all suitable for humans. Here it is required to create a spacesuit without excessive pressure as for divers, but with ensuring the supply of breathable air, with heating and with thermal insulation.

At Enceladus, there is no atmosphere, it requires a completely different spacesuit, about the same as it is now on the ISS - one that can ensure the normal functioning of the astronaut in an airless space with a number of features. That is, it must be inflated, ensure the supply of a mixture suitable for breathing in conditions of practically open space. The atmosphere of Enceladus is very rarefied. In it, 91% is water vapor, 4% is nitrogen, 3,2% is carbon dioxide, 1,7% is methane. The gravity of this small satellite is not enough to keep the atmosphere, therefore, there is a constant source of its replenishment. Such a source is powerful geysers and cryovolcanoes.

When a spacesuit is created, it is necessary to work out requirements, perform design work, scientific and technical research.

You can go the other way. If you have your own company, then you can go to bed, and the spacesuit can just dream. I had this several times - the solution comes in a dream, with all the technical details, with the solution of a certain range of technical contradictions. For example, as in the case of aircraft designers, an aircraft must be durable, but at the same time it must be light to take off and fly.

What tests need to be carried out in order to check the performance of the spacesuit?

Tests are divided into two types. This is a trial with and without human participation. It is necessary, for example, to measure the pressure, conduct a test for pressure testing and other tests. We start with individual elements. For example, the gloves of a spacesuit. We tested for breaking pressure several times. Some exploded, some no longer. We did the same with the sleeves of a spacesuit.

Now NASA helps us to verify and certify our spacesuit for free.

Tests, in particular, need to spend on overload. Ideally, this requires a capsule, with real chairs. The corpse of a man is placed inside the spacesuit - this is what NASA is doing during its tests. And the spacesuit with the corpse is located in the chair. In the US, many people will bequeath their bodies after death for scientific research. Even the coolest mannequin with a bunch of sensors will not show the whole picture of the effects of overloads. It is necessary to load the corpse, and already carry out tests with him to drop the capsule. After that, the body is examined for MRI (tomography). As a result, we learn what happened to the body as a result of a simulated landing. Sensors give an extra picture.

As for certification, it is necessary to pass tests of our materials on the release of toxic substances. NASA helps us with these tests.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Made by Russians

How are spacesuit helmets tested? How shockproof are they?

There are several tests for impact resistance and one of them is a test to simulate the impact of micrometeorites flying at cosmic speeds. A special gun accelerates the grains of sand that hit the helmet's glazing. Obtain objective data. Polycarbonate is a very durable material. It is possible to create helmets from acrylic glass, it is not scratched, but any hole in acrylic will lead to the destruction of the helmet. A polycarbonate - a viscous material and more durable compared with acrylic plastic. It is very difficult for a person to destroy a polycarbonate glazing by himself, well, very difficult, even if you beat him with the same hammer with full force on the glazing of a helmet.

And what about the hero of the film "Martian" - his glass was punched through. This is real?

This is very difficult to do. This is the course of Hollywood directors. In my opinion, breaking a helmet with double-glazed polycarbonate against stones is unlikely when it falls on Mars.

Acrylic helmet can be pierced, thus the Soviet test pilot Peter Dolgov died in 1962 because of the damage to the glazing of the helmet, trying to set a world record for jumping from a great height. When he and his partner went up to a predetermined height in the balloon, the partner jumped first. The gondola began to weigh less and jumped up sharply. Debts as the second room stood at the edge of the hatch, and, most likely, hit a glazing on some protruding bolt. There was a small hole in the helmet, just a few millimeters. He fell out and flew down, the automatic parachute worked, the parachute opened at a given height and landed. But at the beginning of his fall, he was already dead, killed by decompression.

New materials for helmets have been developed in the USA, more durable than polycarbonate and not scratchable, but they are still expensive.

What temperatures does an astronaut suit protect?

Modern materials for spacesuits are heat resistant. Now space suits are being developed with an airgel interlayer for thermal insulation. Specialists from the USA learned 2-3 a year ago to make airgel flexible. We used it in 2015 to create thermal insulation for the gloves of the Martian space suit. A thin layer of airgel will protect the astronaut from extreme temperatures in future missions.

We also need a cooling system, respectively, we need energy to maintain around the spacesuit space about + 20 / + 23 degrees Celsius. When outside about minus 125 degrees Celsius, inside plus 20, a specific thermal control system is required.

Modern materials that are used for space construction, will withstand the temperature on the surface of Venus. But, of course, the spacesuit needs to be cooled, and this is difficult to accomplish on Venus.

What are your future plans for the company?

We created a new spacesuit glove for NASA. Glove testing is a complex process that involves dozens of people. Among other advantages of our gloves, we can highlight increased finger mobility compared to conventional gloves for spacesuits; the volume and weight of the gloves are reduced. NASA, when concluding the contract, put forward 30 criteria and requirements for the gloves. We fulfilled all the conditions.

We are currently negotiating with a number of companies to purchase our spacesuits. We are also working on a new type of spacesuit that can be used in various conditions.

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