SpaceX performs historic first spacewalk with Polaris Dawn crew
cnbc.com
- SpaceX pulled off its first private spacewalk.
- Two members of the Polaris Dawn mission’s crew — Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis — stepped outside of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, protected from the harsh environment of space by the company’s suits.
- Isaacman and Gillis spent about seven minutes each outside the capsule, with a focus on testing the mobility of the spacesuits.
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This is actually pretty impressive. Despite my issues with privatizing these things, and all of Elon’s bullshit, their EV suits are really nice…
If we wait for NASA to get their act together, it'll be another fifty years, before we get back to the moon. And it's all been private contractors all the time anyway. NASA doesn't build any of this stuff themselves. For all three obvious craziness of Elon Musk, SpaceX has provided the best value for money to NASA of all their contractors by a mile.
Since Challenger, NASA has had its hands tied on uber-safety as defined by bureaucrats, and project budgets and timelines reflect that.
I don't think safety consciousness is the problem here. More like having its funding tied to pork barrel politics. Just look at the SLS. There is no rational reason for this program to even exist. The only reason they can't shut it down are politicians who can sell it to their constituents that NASA spends the money in their region on manufacturing it.
Oh man, movement in those suits seems... shall we say, more than a little restricted. Pressurized, they look as rigid as a zeppelin.
I am not defending shmelon but traditional space suits are also extremely difficult to move in and have some very unpleasant aspects when in null pressure environments. Some astronauts have been knowm to have their fingernails removed before a mission because otherwise they might get pulled off while working due to the rigidity of the suit.
Oh I know! It turns out space suits are just really tricky. I was hoping to see some innovation and improvements in mobility from SpaceX, but, not so much apparently. I guess we'll have to wait for NASA's xEMU for any real improvement.
No gravity, dude. You have no idea what the natural resting position of your tendons are without gravity.