
"Shirt-sleeve environment" is a term used in
aircraft
An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...
design to describe the
interior of an aircraft in which no special clothing need be worn. Early aircraft had no
internal pressurization, so the crews of those that reached the
stratosphere
The stratosphere () is the second-lowest layer of the atmosphere of Earth, located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere. The stratosphere is composed of stratified temperature zones, with the warmer layers of air located higher ...
had to be
garbed to withstand the low temperature and pressure of the air outside.
Respirator masks needed to cover the mouth and nose.
Silk
Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...
socks were worn to retain heat. Sometimes leather
clothing
Clothing (also known as clothes, garments, dress, apparel, or attire) is any item worn on a human human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin s ...
, such as boots, were electrically heated. When
jet fighter aircraft reached still higher altitudes, something similar to a
space suit
A space suit (or spacesuit) is an environmental suit used for protection from the harsh environment of outer space, mainly from its vacuum as a highly specialized pressure suit, but also its temperature extremes, as well as radiation and ...
had to be worn, and pilots of the highest
reconnaissance aircraft
A reconnaissance aircraft (colloquially, a spy plane) is a military aircraft designed or adapted to perform aerial reconnaissance with roles including collection of imagery intelligence (including using Aerial photography, photography), signals ...
wore real space suits.
Commercial
jet airliner
A jet airliner or jetliner is an airliner powered by jet engines (passenger jet aircraft). Airliners usually have twinjet, two or quadjet, four jet engines; trijet, three-engined designs were popular in the 1970s but are less common today. Air ...
s fly in the stratosphere, but because they are pressurized, they could be said to have a shirt-sleeve environment. Crews of the US
Apollo spacecraft
The Apollo spacecraft was composed of three parts designed to accomplish the American Apollo program's goal of landing astronauts on the Moon by the end of the 1960s and returning them safely to Earth. The expendable (single-use) spacecraft ...
always began the flight phases of
launch,
docking, and
re-entry
Atmospheric entry (sometimes listed as Vimpact or Ventry) is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. Atmospheric entry may be ''uncontrolled entry ...
in space suits, although they could remove them for many hours. The Soviets tried to perfect this to save weight. This worked well, until an accidental
depressurization on entry resulted in
the deaths of an entire Soyuz crew. Protocols were changed shortly thereafter to require at least
partial spacesuits. Early
Soyuz spacecraft
Soyuz () is a series of spacecraft which has been in service since the 1960s, having made more than 140 flights. It was designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolev Design Bureau (now Energia). The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraf ...
had no provision for space suits in the
re-entry module, although the
orbital module was intended for use as an
airlock
An airlock is a room or compartment which permits passage between environments of differing atmospheric pressure or composition, while minimizing the changing of pressure or composition between the differing environments.
An airlock consist ...
. Thus these operated in a shirt-sleeve environment except for
spacewalk
Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable atmosphere of Earth, Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environme ...
s.
This term is also used in
science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
to describe an alien
planet
A planet is a large, Hydrostatic equilibrium, rounded Astronomical object, astronomical body that is generally required to be in orbit around a star, stellar remnant, or brown dwarf, and is not one itself. The Solar System has eight planets b ...
with an
atmosphere
An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...
breathable by humans without special equipment.
The
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...
's
Spacelab
Spacelab was a reusable laboratory developed by European Space Agency (ESA) and used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory comprised multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier, ...
Habitable module was an area with expanded volume for astronauts to work in a shirt sleeve environment and had space for equipment racks and related support equipment for operations in
Low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...
.
One of the goals for MOLAB rover was to achieve a shirt-sleeve environment (compared to the
Lunar Roving Vehicle
The Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) is a Battery electric vehicle, battery-powered four-wheeled Rover (space exploration), rover used on the Moon in the last three missions of the American Apollo program (Apollo 15, 15, Apollo 16, 16, and Apollo 17 ...
which was open to space and required the use of space suits to operate).
[{{Cite book, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MoKoBQAAQBAJ&q=Shirt-sleeve+environment&pg=PA370, title=Advances in Space Science and Technology, last=Ordway, first=Frederick I., date=2014-12-02, publisher=Academic Press, isbn=9781483224701, language=en] One of the considerations was the habitable volume that could be occupied.
References
Aerospace engineering
Safety engineering
Human habitats