If you’re flying an aircraft over 62,000 feet, we’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that there’s little atmosphere to interfere with your instruments and you’ve got great views of weather patterns. The bad news is that without the proper protection you probably won’t survive a minute. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Jim Sokolik is the head of the High Altitude Life Support team at Dryden Research Center. He describes the care that goes into preparing a pilot for a high-altitude flight. The key to surviving in these extreme conditions is a pressure suit.
“When a mission’s a GO, we go and lay the suit out, the pilot will come down approximately an hour and a half before scheduled take off time. The pilot takes about fifteen minutes to actually put the suit on with the help of the life-support technician. After that they go through a full series of pressure and communication tests to make sure the suit’s fully operational. At any point during this process if anything fails, we either fix the problem on the spot or the mission gets canceled immediately. The suits are the last line of defense. They have to work properly. And for that to happen they have to be put on properly. When the pilot puts on the suit and we put the gloves onto the suit, if one strand of material or a couple of hairs in his arm get caught in a seal, it’ll cause a suit to fail. The same way goes with the helmet. When he puts the helmet on there’s a seal that goes around the face basically from the forehead down to the chin that has to be tight. If a pilot hasn’t shaved or if he gets a couple of strands of hair caught in there, that causes enough of a gap that will cause the helmet to fail. So these assemblies are monitored that closely.”
Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation with additional support from NASA. I’m Jim Metzner.
music
High Altitude Suit Technology - Mission
There is little room for error when you work at an altitude of 62,000 feet.
Air Date:10/23/2006
Scientist:
Transcript:
music ambience: Cockpit Radio
If you're flying an aircraft over 62,000 feet, we've got good news and bad news. The good news is that there's little atmosphere to interfere with your instruments and you've got great views of weather patterns. The bad news is that without the proper protection you probably won't survive a minute. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Jim Sokolik is the head of the High Altitude Life Support team at Dryden Research Center. He describes the care that goes into preparing a pilot for a high-altitude flight. The key to surviving in these extreme conditions is a pressure suit.
"When a mission's a GO, we go and lay the suit out, the pilot will come down approximately an hour and a half before scheduled take off time. The pilot takes about fifteen minutes to actually put the suit on with the help of the life-support technician. After that they go through a full series of pressure and communication tests to make sure the suit's fully operational. At any point during this process if anything fails, we either fix the problem on the spot or the mission gets canceled immediately. The suits are the last line of defense. They have to work properly. And for that to happen they have to be put on properly. When the pilot puts on the suit and we put the gloves onto the suit, if one strand of material or a couple of hairs in his arm get caught in a seal, it'll cause a suit to fail. The same way goes with the helmet. When he puts the helmet on there's a seal that goes around the face basically from the forehead down to the chin that has to be tight. If a pilot hasn't shaved or if he gets a couple of strands of hair caught in there, that causes enough of a gap that will cause the helmet to fail. So these assemblies are monitored that closely."
Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation with additional support from NASA. I'm Jim Metzner.