Hi again, nosecone1023...
Space suits have evolved from the silvery suits of the
Mercury missions, which would not have been suitable
for a moonwalk, to the Apollo suits, which were.
The Franklin Institute Online has some wonderful
interactive modules on the following page, including
Apollo 8, Apollo 10, and the Grumman Lunar Module:
http://www.fi.edu/pieces/
From the Apollo 8 module, there is a link to this
page on the history of the space suit:
http://www.fi.edu/pieces/hiley/history.htm
The construction of the suit is described there,
going from the inner to the outer layers:
"The Apollo suit consisted of the following:
A water-cooled nylon undergarment
A multi-layered pressure suit
inside layer - lightweight nylon with fabric vents
middle layer - neoprene-coated nylon to hold pressure
outer layer - nylon to restrain the pressurized layers beneath
Five layers of aluminized Mylar interwoven with four layers of
Dacron for heat protection
Two layers of Kapton for additional heat protection
A layer of Teflon-coated cloth (nonflammable) for protection
from scrapes
A layer of white Teflon cloth (nonflammable)"
Another page, written in rather poor english, but offering
a more detailed description of the contents of the layers
of this 2 million dollar suit, as well as providing a
number of interesting facts surrounding space suits,
is from the ApolloManiacs website, in Japan:
http://apollomaniacs.web.infoseek.co.jp/apollo/spacesuite.htm
Finally, a more functional description of the manner in
which the suit maintains a comfortable temperature for
the astronauts, who must face temperatures ranging from
300F degrees in direct sunlight to -200F degrees in the
shade, is provided on this page from IntelligentChild.com:
http://www.intelligentchild.com/astronomy/spacewalk.html
That page notes:
"When people discuss space, they often describe it as cold.
That is not quite correct - space has no temperature. An
object gets hot or cold in space by absorbing heat (and
light) from the sun and by emitting heat to space away
from the sun."
The same would be true in the very thin atmosphere of the
moon.
The temperature of the suit is therefore maintained by a
combination of a white reflective outer coat, insulating
materials, regulation of the air temperature, and finally
the water-cooled nylon undergarment which:
"...looks like long underwear, but has small plastic tubes
running through it to surround the astronaut's body. These
tubes have water pumped through them. The water helps absorb
the heat put out by the astronaut during exercise. If the
temperature drops and the astronaut gets cold, she can turn
off the water flow and keep more of the body heat in place."
http://www.intelligentchild.com/astronomy/spacewalk.html
You will likely find other, equally informative links among
the Google search result linked below.
Please do not rate this answer until you are satisfied that
the answer cannot be improved upon by means of a dialog
established through the "Request for Clarification" process.
sublime1-ga
Searches done, via Google:
astronauts "space suit" sun heat
://www.google.com/search?q=astronauts+%22space+suit%22+sun+heat |
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