• Question: how do you pump air into space suits?

    Asked by anon-356728 on 13 Mar 2023.
    • Photo: Emma Harris

      Emma Harris answered on 13 Mar 2023:

      so the space suit is put on in a normal air environment, and is then topped up with oxygen throughout use. It also has a little straw and a water tank so the astronauts don’t get thirsty as they can be in their space suits for hours!

    • Photo: Joshua Bibby

      Joshua Bibby answered on 13 Mar 2023:

      Once you have put the space suit on in air, there is air already in the space suit. As you use up the oxygen is ‘used up’ as you breathe it in, more oxygen is pumped in through a tube linked to the backpack on the spacesuit. The carbon dioxide you breathe out is then removed using a material called lithium hydroxide which removes and stores carbon dioxide through a chemical reaction.

    • Photo: Lucien Heurtier

      Lucien Heurtier answered on 14 Mar 2023:

      Emma and Joshua have good answers to that already.

      Instead of answering more, here is a question you could think about: what happens if the astronaut already has good pressure in its suit but then starts farting in it? Of course it would stink, but would the pressure increase then?

      Good luck 😉

    • Photo: Yannick Verbelen

      Yannick Verbelen answered on 14 Mar 2023:

      It’s an interesting question Jamie, I don’t know the answer for sure, but I think it’s going to be a surprisingly low-tech solution, like a bike compressor pump or something along those lines. Pumping air isn’t that hard of a technological problem, so it’s better to solve simple problems with simple solutions rather than over-engineering solutions.

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