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A single-person spacecraft is a vehicle designed for space travel. The concept has been used in
The idea of a space-suit is that of a man-sized capsule, something beyond form-fitting space suits and rigid suits similar to EVA.
/ref> NASA developed a body-shaped single person spacecraft called FlexCraft, with the idea of allowing more and shorter EVA. The spacecraft would be at the same atmospheric pressure as the ISS, thus removing the medical stress and time needed to decompress and compress, and the danger of the bends. A single-person spacecraft could also enhance protection against
/ref> In 2018 a single person spacecraft capsule tested in a water pool by NASA. This design has a hatch at the bottom that an astronaut could enter into, but it would be at full pressure thus avoiding the need to purge nitrogen from the body for low-pressure suits. The capsule suit has robotic manipulators, and could be used for some of the tasks currently done in space suits, but the capsule suit would also have enhanced
Von Braun Bottle
Benefits of a Single-Person Spacecraft for Weightless Operations
Spacecraft Human spaceflight
A single-person spacecraft is a vehicle designed for space travel. The concept has been used in science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...
and actual ships such as the Mercury capsule
Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet ...
, Vostok Vostok refers to east in Russian but may also refer to:
Spaceflight
* Vostok programme, Soviet human spaceflight project
* Vostok (spacecraft), a type of spacecraft built by the Soviet Union
* Vostok (rocket family), family of rockets derived from ...
and some suborbital designs. Single-person spacecraft have been envisioned as a supplement or replacement for space suit
A space suit or spacesuit is a garment worn to keep a human alive in the harsh environment of outer space, vacuum and temperature extremes. Space suits are often worn inside spacecraft as a safety precaution in case of loss of cabin pressure ...
s in certain applications. The Von Braun Bottle suit of the 1950s functions as a hybrid of a space suit and a one-person spacecraft.
Capsule-suits
The idea of a space-suit is that of a man-sized capsule, something beyond form-fitting space suits and rigid suits similar to EVA.
Wernher von Braun
Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...
, known for the moonshot project, proposed a conical bottle suit in the 1950s. In 1965, the Grumman moon suit had a hard bottle enclosure allowing the user's arms to fully retract into the suit.
In the 1970s, NASA worked on the AX-3 Hardsuit. In the 1980s, NASA Ames
The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) labora ...
center developed the AX-5 hard suit to avoid having to pre-breathe for lower-pressure suits than the host spacecraft. A NASA space suit with some hard elements (named the I-Suit), was developed later.
The Manned Maneuvering Unit
The Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) is an astronaut propulsion unit that was used by NASA on three Space Shuttle missions in 1984. The MMU allowed the astronauts to perform untethered extravehicular spacewalks at a distance from the shuttle. ...
is noted in regard to the single-person spacecraft, and it was tested in space in 1984 during a Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially 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. Its official program na ...
flight. Highly compact single-person spacecraft have been considered by ISS
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAX ...
for EVA work, to avoid having to go through the decompression needed to use the lower-pressure space suits.Benefits of a Single-Person Spacecraft for Weightless Operations Brand Norman Griffin /ref> NASA developed a body-shaped single person spacecraft called FlexCraft, with the idea of allowing more and shorter EVA. The spacecraft would be at the same atmospheric pressure as the ISS, thus removing the medical stress and time needed to decompress and compress, and the danger of the bends. A single-person spacecraft could also enhance protection against
micrometeoroid
A micrometeoroid is a tiny meteoroid: a small particle of rock in space, usually weighing less than a gram. A micrometeorite is such a particle that survives passage through Earth's atmosphere and reaches Earth's surface.
The term "micrometeoro ...
impacts and radiation from cosmic rays.
The Personal Rescue Enclosure
The personal rescue enclosure (PRE), or "rescue ball", was a device for transporting astronauts from one Space Shuttle to another in case of an emergency. It was produced as a prototype but never flew on any missions.
The ball was in diameter an ...
was developed for the Space Shuttle. On the ISS the combination of a Space Suit, the Simplified Aid For EVA Rescue
Simplified Aid For EVA Rescue (SAFER) is a small, self-contained, propulsive backpack system ( jet pack) worn during spacewalks, to be used in case of emergency only. If an untethered astronaut were to lose physical contact with the vessel, it wo ...
(SAFER) and Extravehicular Mobility Unit are used, combined to form a soft-suit spacecraft for emergencies.
A demonstration of single-person spacecraft for ISS
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAX ...
, called the FlexCraft, was proposed in the 2010s.Low Cost Space Demonstration for a Single-Person Spacecraft Brand N. Griffin1/ref> In 2018 a single person spacecraft capsule tested in a water pool by NASA. This design has a hatch at the bottom that an astronaut could enter into, but it would be at full pressure thus avoiding the need to purge nitrogen from the body for low-pressure suits. The capsule suit has robotic manipulators, and could be used for some of the tasks currently done in space suits, but the capsule suit would also have enhanced
micrometeoroid
A micrometeoroid is a tiny meteoroid: a small particle of rock in space, usually weighing less than a gram. A micrometeorite is such a particle that survives passage through Earth's atmosphere and reaches Earth's surface.
The term "micrometeoro ...
protection and a higher pressure atmosphere.
List of capsule-suits
*NASAFlexCraft
The Deep Space Habitat (DSH) is a series of concepts by NASA that would be used to support crewed exploration missions to the Moon, asteroids, and eventually Mars.
* Space activity suit
* Suitport
* Mars suit
*MOOSE
The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...
References
{{Reflist, 2External links
Von Braun Bottle
Further reading
Benefits of a Single-Person Spacecraft for Weightless Operations
Spacecraft Human spaceflight