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#1 Yesterday 14:57:08

RobertDyck
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From: Winnipeg, Canada
Registered: 2002-08-20
Posts: 8,238
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Spacesuit materials

One experiment on Perseverance rover was materials exposure for spacesuit fabric. Tiny fabric swatches held up surprisingly well. I notice the weave of Teflon is tighter than Orthofabric, so better had keeping out dust. Swatches didn't get dirty like Apollo spacesuits on the Moon. Of course difference is the Moon has igneous rock pulverized by billions of years of meteorite and micrometeorite impacts. Microscope views of Lunar dust shows sharp edges of every dust particle, like napped stone knives. Mars has an atmosphere, the particles are more rounded, like dust on Earth.
YouTube: Surprising condition of spacesuit materials after 4+ years on Mars

Image from video: 6b46dvI.jpeg

Orthofabric is the white fabric used by the EMU spacesuit used for spacewalks on the Space Shuttle and ISS. Orthofabric is a double layer fabric with PTFE facing. Backing is Nomex with 2 threads in each direction every 3/8" replaced by Kevlar. Nomex is the fabric used by firefighter jacket and pants. PTFE is PolyTetraFluoroEthylene, the same polymer as Teflon. But the name "Teflon" is a trademark of the Dupont company, while Orthofabric was made by Gore Textile company, known for the brand name GoreTex. The company that makes Orthofabric was separated to a separate company. That company makes Tenara architectural fabric, which is a single layer twill weave of the same PTFE with no backing. "Twill" is the weave used by jeans. The yarn for Tenara is the same material, same thread diameter and weight, made by the same company, in the same factory, and on the same machines. I argue Tenara is more appropriate for the surface of Mars.

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#2 Yesterday 17:33:43

tahanson43206
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Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 22,838

Re: Spacesuit materials

This post is reserved for an index to posts that may be contributed by NewMars members.

This topic ** should ** have a long life because the evolution of space suits is ** just ** getting started, with a robust foundation of Russian, US and Chinese designs, followed by SpaceX more recently and no doubt others.

Posts about the history of space suit materials (building upon RobertDyck's opening) would be welcome.

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