Did you like how we did? Rate your experience!

4.5

satisfied

46 votes

If the surface temp of the Moon in sunlight can reach 260 F , and the?

First, the A-7L spacesuit was white, and insulated, so it was never going to heat up to anything like that temperature. The part of the moon that can get that hot is the regolith, which is roughly to color of wood ash. Second, the lunar overshoes had extra insulation for protection against prolonged standing on hot surfaces. Third, the PLSS life support pack used a water ice sublimator to cool air and coolant circulated through the suit. Water was pumped from a reservoir to a space behind a porous metal plate, where it would boil, cooling until it froze. The back of the sublimator would remain at freezing as long as water was pumped in to replace whatever boiled or sublimated through the plate, and as long as the other side of the plate was exposed to vacuum. For this reason, the supply of water was a vital consumable, as without it, an astronaut could overheat and die. The LEM also used a similar sublimator, and the CSM used something similar along with radiators. Fourth, as a backup (but never used on the moon) the Oxygen Purge System (OPS) could carry body heat away by dumping it to space along with the air supply. This was as an emergency backup in case the PLSS failed. It was inefficient, but the oxygen in the OPS (carried atop the PLSS) could supply enough oxygen to breathe and keep cool for up to half an hour, which had better be enough to get inside a spacecraft.

100%
Loading, please wait...