James Burke demonstrates the Luna EVA suit

[morganfitzp]

It's Burke, at 33, doing what every kid wished they could do in 1969. Thanks for finding this.

[soberek]

No wonder we all love Dr Isaac Kleiner. Deep down we simply all love James Burke. C'mon, it's soooo obvious that Kleiner is more/less just a James Burke tribute project.

[Sylderon]

James Burke: Informative and funny!

[gnark1ll1us]

Have to say Id have been tempted to run off with a couple of items off that suit : P

I mean what would a Apollo era glove cost nowadays? or helmet?

[gnark1ll1us]

brilliant, thanks fro the post mate, vry funny/interesting : D

[datzfast]

just once i would like to see the suit inflated on earth

[italianman004]

are you f_ing kidding me, so you wallo in your shit during the entire journey..Im sorry but i think i will wait on space travel.

[alijanlondon]

No they didn't wallow in their own shit during the entire journey you thick bastard. Watch again. Twat.

[shelle1even]

What an Honor to where one of those suits! I have a hundred Photographs of my self taken! LOL! With the Glare Visor up of course! (I Knew that cuase of this Vid! LOL!) Thanks alot Man!

[loons13]

i saw sometihing like this in the C.B.S. covarge of the moon landing in 1969.

[michaelstmark]

The suit would not protect against micrometeorite impact, actually. Yet another fanciful tale from the 1960s.

[apollotls]

Makes me wonder how the spacewalking ISS astronauts survive then.

Do you think they're protected by the Van Allen Belts perhaps?

[loperspest]

why not? what is your evidence? Just becuae you say doesn't make it true.

[michaelstmark]

Do you know the speed/mass potential energy of what is classed as a micrometeorite?

If you understood that you wouldn't have made that comment - and neither would J. Burke.

[loperspest]

I didn't know when you asked, but questioning has spurred me on. Thank you. according to the 'McGraw-Hill's AccessScience' article on micrometeoroids, it is a submillimeter extraterrestrial particle. Part of the protection in a space suit Kevlar. The same stuff the use to protect peace officers, and presidents, from bullets. Now a bullet has a much greater mass, but much lower velocity. If this stuff can stop a bullet, it seems to me that it could stop a micrometeoroid.

[michaelstmark]

The suits were made tough to prevent possible rupture and instant depressurization/death with the supposed risk of tumbling onto lunar rocks ( just as they hilariously did, clowning around on the lunar stage set ).

You have no clue what a 1mg particle travelling at 10 miles a second could do, you're both out of your depth and out of touch (with reality).

[loperspest]

Your right, I don't know. But, I do know this. Space, is mostly empty. The chances of them meeting a micrometeoroid on the larger scale are quite small. As well, getting a small puncture wouldn't mean instant death. A high altitude balloonist, lost pressure in his glove. he lost feeling in it for a while, but when he descended, there turned out to be no injury. Also in case of a puncture, the suit would turn air flow on high, giving the astronaut a few minutes to get inside.

[michaelstmark]

You're forgetting the minor detail that a 10MPS speck would have enough energy to pass right through the astronaut's body and out the other side as well, loper' :)

But I agree with your point that they're extremely few and far between and the chance of being hit is millions to one against.

That's the other reason I said Burke's/NASAs "m. meteorite protection" claim was absurd.

[loperspest]

It was for the more common, really small micrometioroid. Besides, you are kind of contradicting yourself You say that they couldn't go from the horrible hazards of mirometiorites, like it was peoples (fictional) idea of an asteroid field, and then saying that any damaging meteorite would be super rare. Can you give some data on the damaging effect of a speck sized micrometeorite?

[michaelstmark]

No I'm not being contradictory. They are both extremely rare and extremely damaging.

Think of the energy of a bus hitting you but focused on one tiny point and one microsecond.

It would be very much a case of Goodnight Vienna Mr Astronaut 'fraid 'pest.

So. Yet another space fable from the 60s exposed.

[loperspest]

Well so are asteroids, but I don't spend my days yelling "the sky is falling, the sky is FALLING!" Now, wouldn't dangerous micrometeorites be more common in low earth orbit? What with all the space junk and all. And yet, as far as I know, you don't think earth orbit EVA's are fake. Or do you?

[michaelstmark]

" Now, wouldn't dangerous micrometeorites be more common in low earth orbit?"

Of course, but it's only a question of degree. A greater chance than zero ( they all get burnt up in the atmosphere) may increase the risk to a billion-to-one against.

It still would be a totally negligible chance of an impact occurring. And in any case, as stated, the spacesuit shell would provide no protection whatsoever at the massive concentrated potential energies we are discussing.

[loperspest]

It was most likly meant for the really really small ones, that would be much more common. And also possible to shield from. Sure deaceleration increases mass, but if the mass is already super tiny, even such an increase in mass wouldn't be hard to shield from. As well, gravity doesn't scale smoothly.

[soccom8341576]

@michaelstmark

What would you need to stop that?

[britoca]

no, he's not.

[loperspest]

Um, are you commenting on something I said? Your comment is so breif I am not sure how to comment back. By the way, thank you for that informative bit of math you did. If I understand it right, I guess I was correct. Thank you for taking the time.

[britoca]

neither do you I'm afraid:

bullet mass ~ 5g = .005kg

bullet v ~ 695m/s

bullet Kenergy ~ .5*.005kg*(965m/s)^2 ~ 2328J

m.met. mass: 1mg = .000001kg

m.met. v: 10miles/s = 16093m/s

m.met. Ke = .5*.000001kg*(16093m/s)^2 ~ 130J

now 2328J/130J ~ 18 times the Kenergy.

Bullet wins. 18 times over. :)

[osallent]

Great video!!!