“Beam me up Scotty!” - What to wear for a date in space.
Mankind has always had the dream of space travel. Already the old Babylonians and Greeks of 4000 B.C. had myths and stories about it. (Kuesterer) And the Mayans and ancient Egyptians have been suspected to know more about the universe then we would have liked them to.
The French writer Jules Verne, (1828 - 1905), fantasized about distant travel under the ocean and into the sky, combining a gift for exotic with an interest in the latest scientific discoveries. He spent long hours in the Paris libraries studying geology, astronomy and engineering.
In his book “From the Earth to the Moon”, first published in1865, he tells a story about the first lunar expedition. Verne had great faith in the growing potential of the still young Untied States and often predicted that it would lead the world in the following century. So when thinking about going to the moon, Verne picked the United States for his setting. Verne's heroes are the Civil War veterans, despite the ongoing war in America, who are members of the fictional “Gun Club who do not represent the usual aimless, romantic nineteenth-century dreamers. They are full of physical restless energy through which Verne shows his key idea: Limitations can be overcome by work, will and wonder.
It must be said that in the times of the Industrial Revolution people did not understand the term “outer space”, as balloons were the only means of transportation into the sky. The newly acquired birds-eye view of cities and landscapes spread a general euphoria and gave painters new exciting perspectives to depict. There was never a doubt about the existence of air in higher altitudes and only few writers realized that balloons would not rise into space, as it is a vacuum and balloons are based on gas that is lighter than air.
Verne, however, had already thought of a cannon fired rocket and had included the necessity of the escape velocity to leave the earth’s gravitational pull. He suspected that a launch base close to the equator would be the best choice and picked both Texas and Florida for his setting. Surprisingly exactly these sites were used for rocket launching almost one hundred years later. Verne also foretold the shape of the capsule, the number of astronauts (three), weightlessness in space, a splashdown at sea picked up by the American Navy, and even the use of rockets to change orbit and return to earth!
Of course Verne's’ Rocket was not very realistic as his passengers would have been smashed due to the increase of gravity during take-off, but apart from this trivial mater his predictions were quite stunning. Verne died shortly before he could witness the Wright brothers’ first flight. (Verne, VII-XV).
The real age of spacetravel began on October 4th, 1957, with a satellite, a tiny sphere with a diameter of 58 centimeters and a mass of 83 kilograms, named “Sputnik” and launched by the Soviet Union. It reached an altitude of 946 kilometers and stayed in orbit for 57 days. Another one followed and with that the back-to-back Soviet satellites also sent a military message. The Russians were interested in space and could get there. They had big missiles, and they alone knew how many. Engaged in a global rivalry, the United States and the Soviet Union not only entered a space race but also had undertaken an arms race aimed at the development of thermonuclear weapons, as well as the intercontinental ballistic missiles to deliver them. The successful launch of two Sputnik satellites and the explosive, public failure of the first Vanguard liftoff on December 6, 1957, informed the world that the derby was on and the U.S. was slow. This relaxed American approach was evident as early as July 28, 1955, when the Eisenhower White House announced, without real calendar commitment, the United States would launch small earth-circling satellites as part of the United States participation in the International Geophysical Year. The Russians, however, knew they were in a horserace. As early as 1951, Soviet plans to get into the satellite business were mentioned publicly.(Krupp)
Setting the standard for the space race, Russia launched the first being into space, the dog “Laika” on board Sputnik II on Nov. 3rd, 1957. (It is still unclear whether it returned to earth safely.) The first human to leave the earth was Yuri Gagarin on board Vostok 1, on the 12th of April 1961 and returned to earth 1 hour and 48 minutes.
The United States followed with their satellite in 1958.
In 1969 Edwin “Buzz“ Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins landed on the moon during their Apollo 11 mission and Armstrong said the famous, well-prepared words: “The Eagle has landed.” Or was it the ego? The United States have been quite eager at avoiding acknowledgements of Russian achievements like for example
Aleksei Arkhipovich Leonov’s space walk in 1964. Reading a Seattle Times from February of 2001(after the Cold War) it states that “Alpha commander Bill Shepherd and his two Russian crewmates moved into the [international] space station” (Dunn), and does not say the names of the Russian Crewmates throughout the whole article. Sad, but true.
In the 1970s Russia’s development of space stations followed: Saljut 1, the first Russian space station with a weight of 13 tons, then Skylab and Mir. Saljut was first manned in April 1971. Mir was launched in February 1986 by the Soviet Union and was a very successful design. In 1998 the first parts of the new international space station (ISS) were launched and Mir was abandoned. ISS is the first is the first station that has artificial gravity through the structure of a centrifuge module. With a mass of 400 tons it is four times as big as Mir. Its forerunner now depends on private investments and commercialization to stay alive.
Physiology in space:
Astronauts are exposed to problems while trying to stay alive in space themselves. Weightlessness, which triggers bone loss, is one of them as it causes the density decline of weight-bearing at the rate of 1 to 2 percent a month.
When astronauts return to earth, their space-adapted systems must learn to cope with gravity again. Often astronauts have to be carried out of their spacecraft upon return because muscle loss and weakness due to gravity hinders the mobility. In weightless conditions body fluids surge to the chest and head, puffing the face and shrinking the legs. The body responds by excreting fluids containing sodium and calcium, red blood cells decrease leaving astronauts anemic. The heart enlarges and then shrinks; spinal disks expand; cells can lose structure. The immune system and support muscles weaken. Sleep patterns are disturbed, for reasons not understood, limiting astronauts to six hours of sleep a day. Another problem is the high radiation that astronauts are exposed to in space. It can cause cancer and even mutate genes. (National Geographic).
The vital piece of protection in space is the space suit. It has to protect the cosmonaut from various dangers like temperature fluctuations, cosmic radiation, and the vacuum in space.
The standard dress inside the space shuttle is rather comfortable. A two-piece unisex suit made out of specially treated cotton to be fire resistant and underneath it one normally wears a t-shirt. (Smolders, 62).
The actual space suit necessary for a space walk or on a stroll on the moon asks for the construction of a much more complicated device and presents more intricate problems. A space suit is a complete miniature world, a self-contained environment that must supply everything needed for an astronaut's life, as well as comfort. The suit must provide a pressurized interior, without which an astronaut's blood would boil in the vacuum of space. The consequent pressure differential between the inside and the outside of the suit is so great that when inflated the suit becomes a distended, rigid, and unyielding capsule. Special joints were designed to give the astronaut as much free movement as possible. The best engineering has not been able to provide as much flexibility of movement as is desirable; to compensate for that lack, attention has been directed toward the human-factors design of the tools and devices that an astronaut must use.
In addition to overcoming pressurization and movement problems, a space suit must provide oxygen; a system for removing excess products of respiration, carbon dioxide and water vapor; protection against extreme heat, cold, and radiation; protection for the eyes in an environment in which there is no atmosphere to absorb the sun's rays; facilities for speech communication; and facilities for the temporary storage of body wastes. This is such an imposing list of human requirements that an entire technology has been developed to deal with them and, indeed, with the provision of simulated environments and procedures for testing and evaluating space suits. (Britannica).
In the last decades the standard space suit has gone through the following developments:
The survival pack on the back not only contains sufficient oxygen and water (it can be drunk in small amounts via a tube in the helmet) to last approximately seven hours, but also a ventilator to circulate the oxygen in the suit, and a pump to pump the cooling water around it including the batteries to supply electricity to the apparatus. It has a built-in carbon filter, which is a container with lithium hydroxide, a white, crystalline, water-soluble compound, LiOH, that absorbs carbon dioxide (Infoplease) which one exhales, as well as other body vapors. The suit is made out of several layers. The basic layer is a rubber sack filled with oxygen, and provides a pressure of 0.25 kg per square centimeter, i.e. about a quarter of the pressure on Earth. This low pressure is necessary to prevent the suit from becoming stiff and it is high enough to prevent your blood from boiling. Over the rubber layer is a layer of Dacron polyester, a trademark for a polyester fiber. Dacron is a condensation polymer obtained from ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid. Its properties include high tensile strength, high resistance to stretching, both wet and dry, and good resistance to degradation by chemical bleaches and to abrasion. (Infoplease) It prevents the suit from excessive expansion and helps to maintain its shape. On top of this are several layers of fireproof fabric and flexible metal, for protection against temperature variation and radiation. (Smolders, 72)
Scientists were presented with a big challenge when creating the Apollo spacesuits for walking on the moon and protecting the astronauts for an extended period of time while allowing them to move for exploration. Potential threats were micrometeorite, jagged rocks, ultraviolet radiation and the temperature extremes of minus 157 to plus 121 degrees Centigrade in space. The astronauts also needed to be able to handle delicate equipment and later in the program sit on the lunar rover. Apollo space suit mobility was improved over earlier suits by use of bellow-like molded rubber joints at the shoulders, elbows, hips and knees. Modifications to the suit waist for Apollo 15 through 17 missions added flexibility at the waist to make it easier for crewmen to sit on the lunar rover vehicle. From the skin out, the Apollo A7LB spacesuit began with an astronaut-worn liquid-cooling garment, similar to a pair of long johns with a network of spaghetti-like tubing sewn onto the fabric. Cool water, circulating through the tubing, transferred metabolic heat from the Moon explorer’s body to the backpack and thence to space.
Next came a comfort and donning improvement layer of lightweight nylon, followed by a gas-tight pressure bladder of Neoprene-coated nylon or bellows-like molded joints components, a nylon restraint layer to prevent the bladder from ballooning, a lightweight thermal super insulation of alternating layers of thin kapton and glass-fiber cloth, several layers of Mylar and spacer material, and finally, protective outer layers of Teflon-coated glass-fiber Beta cloth.
Apollo space helmets were formed from high strength polycarbonate and were attached to the spacesuit by a pressure-sealing neck ring. Unlike Mercury and Gemini helmets, which were closely fitted and moved with the crewman’s head, the Apollo helmet was fixed and the head was free to move within. While walking on the Moon, Apollo crewmen wore an outer visor assembly over the polycarbonate helmet to shield against eye damaging ultraviolet radiation, and to maintain head and face thermal comfort.
Completing the Moon explorer’s ensemble were lunar gloves and boots, both designed for the rigors of exploring, and the gloves for adjusting sensitive instruments. The lunar surface gloves consisted of integral structural restraint and pressure bladders, molded from casts of the crewmen’s hands, and covered by multi-layered super-insulation for thermal and abrasion protection. Thumb and fingertips were molded of silicone rubber to permit a degree of sensitivity and “feel”. Pressure-sealing disconnects, similar to the helmet-to-suit connection, attached the gloves to the spacesuit arms.
The lunar boot was actually an overshoe that Apollo lunar explorer, and slipped on over the integral pressure boot of the spacesuit. The outer layer of the lunar boot was made from metal-woven fabric, except for the ribbed silicone rubber sole; the tongue area was made from Teflon-coated glass-fiber cloth. The boot inner layers were made from Teflon-coated glass-fiber cloth followed by 25 alternating layers of Kapton film and glass-fiber cloth to form an efficient, lightweight thermal insulation. (Ellis, 1-3)
Mr. Spock and the Space Age:
Because science made such a leap forwards in the 60's, scientific progress seemed to be unstoppable. Even in the home gadgets like color TV, hi-fi record players, better cars, and so on made the “affluent society” that could travel more broadly now due to cheaper air fares. The first desktop computers became available and in medicine the first heart transplant operations were being performed. (Connikie) The technological plagiarization of the sci-fi world made congenital futurists begin to wonder if they could stay ahead of the game.
To help society and get people through this trying period, fans of the far out could fall back on a number of still-unrealized schemes for galactic federations. (Time-Life, Vol.VII, p.256) Roddenberry's creation of the space vehicle, or starship, Enterprise and its multiracial, even multi-planetary, crew presented was the optimistic answer to the questions about the future, in particular in the 23rd century. Captain James Kirk, the responsible charmer, Mr. Spock, the Vulcan rationalist accompanied by other officers of the “Enterprise” were on the 79-episodes-long to "seek out new life and new civilizations"; encountering the different planetary environments on their way and a variety of intelligent life forms, from gaseous beings to humanoids.
Another remarkable member of the fleet was Lt. Uhura, serving under the command of Captain Kirk in the post of a highly skilled communications officer. Her name means 'freedom' in Swahili - and she once revealed that, when considering leaving the show in 1967, no less a figure than Martin Luther King had advised her to stay, because she represented a great role model for black people on a primetime TV show. (Startrek) The series were created by the American television and film producer Gene Roddenberry, who passed away in 1991. He began to sell his idea to producers in 1964, but it was not until 1966, that the first episode was aired.
The series was rampantly threatened with cancellation but survived until Sept. 1969 through the support of ardent fans who called themselves “Trekkies”.
It’s easy to imagine that Roddenberry’s idea might have been based on his jobs previously to becoming a free-lance TV writer. He flew B-17 bombers in WWII, was an airline captain from 1949-53 and served in the L.A. police force thereafter. Roddenberry dared to imagine a future in which the human race had evolved in perfect harmony. Such optimism had obvious appeal in an era of anxiety and unrest. But Trek wasn't just about escapism--it gave viewers a fresh perspective on their own world, with morality plays that were thinly veiled versions of 20th-century Earth problems. Of course, Trek found plenty of action as well. There were Klingons and Romulans, phasers and photon torpedoes, all fought under the supervision of space cowboy, Captain Kirk.
With the success of Star Trek in syndication, Roddenberry went to work as producer on Star Trek--The Motion Picture, which was released in 1979. It was followed by seven more Star Trek motion pictures, with Roddenberry serving as executive consultant on the first three. Beginning in 1987, he was also executive producer of the sequel television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. Star Trek eventually spawned two more television series and an animated series. Roddenberry also wrote Star Trek--The Motion Picture: A Novel (1979). (Encyclopedia Britannica)
The costumes and props on Star-Trek were surely intergalactic, but slightly unsuitable for real space travel. The men’s uniform, depending on their rank is a red, blue, or gold shirt with a black V-neck and matching black tight pants. The ladies uniform featured the same colors but had the shape of a barely behind-covering dress with a slightly asymmetrical V-neck.
These outfits are rather made for show and to represent the social drive of women in the sixties to once again free themselves from restrictive clothing. The more technically advanced gadgets there were in the household, the fewer clothes were on the housewife.
In reality, even if humanity should reach the ability of traveling into the universe in a very comfortable environment, ladies would probably sue the space company for sexually explicit uniforms.
Another interesting futuristic accelerated idea is the speed of space travel. The maximum speed for rockets in reality is approximately whatever the exhaust velocity is - since everything we have put into space so far depends on chemical reactions for propulsion, that limits things to not much more than escape velocity from the solar system - somewhere around 25,000 miles per hour. (Smith) Although Star Trek had a great technological achievement of the “Warp Drive”, but it was purely fictional: The energy needed to produce warp drive would require more power than our entire universe could provide. (BBC)
There are lots of proposals for getting space vehicles to go much faster, but so far nobody has actually constructed one yet. Many of these proposals rely on nuclear energy, which people are still afraid to actually use. Other techniques include using light (from a very strong laser) to propel a sail-like spaceship. Most of them require a very large initial cost or a technology beyond our current availability. (Smith)
Futuristic Designers of the 60's:
Much of today's fashion had its origins in the 60's when fashion began to interpret the newly gained mood of the sixties in their work, freeing women from body constraining clothes. (Fidm) Rudi Gernreich, the Austrian-born American avant-garde fashion designer, born in Vienna in 1922 and died in L.A. in 1985, created controversial yet original work that influenced most of today’s fashion creations.
Gernreich immigrated to the United States in 1938 and, from 1942 to 1948, was a dancer and costume designer for the Lester Horton Modern Dance Troupe. From 1951 to 1959 he worked as a designer for a Los Angeles boutique. In 1960 Rudi Gernreich Inc. was formed, but he continued to design knitwear and swimsuits for other manufacturers.
In 1964 he designed a topless swimsuit ("Monokini") that gained him worldwide notoriety. The unisex look, invisible undergarments, transparent tops, miniskirts, knit tank suits, and brightly colored stockings were his trademarks.
Gernreich changed the way women dress. At the beach, the Gernreich unstructured bathing suit is still the preferred model for one-piece suits. Gernreich's design for a "no bra"-bra is still the undergarment of choice for most women in the Western world. It was a radical departure from the pointy, torpedo shaped bras that
He designed the first knitted tube dress, used cut outs in clothes, was the first to use vinyl and plastic in clothes, introduced androgyny through men’s suits, hats and underwear on women.
Gernreich was the pioneer in many things like the first see-through clothes; outfits based on leotards and tights of the Middle Ages, the use of hardware for decoration like zippers and dog leash clasps. He even produced the first version of designer jeans and brought out the first thong bathing suit for men and women. (Moffit)
Fault tolerance:
The fast progress in technology and space travel made people eliminate the possibility of technological flaws.
In the article “Toward a Zero-Defect Culture” Ian Strecker explains how society had “a commitment to continuous improvement” and expected everybody to “work together to provide the foundations for a zero-defect culture”.
Stanley Kubrick was one of the pioneers to try to break this mass hypnosis with his cinematographic masterpiece of science fiction “2001: A Space Odyssey”.
Born in 1928 and died in 1999, Kubrick was an American motion-picture director and writer whose films were characterized by a cool, formal visual style, meticulous attention to detail, and a detached, often ironic pessimism.
This particular movie is an odyssey of the intellect, a scientific and philosophical study of the origin and creation of the universe based on a critical look at the Anthropic Principle. (Encyclopedia Britannica).
Watching the film, the viewer feels that he is being treated to nothing less than a capsulated tale of human civilization, from Day One to the present, and even into the future. The film is panoramic, and of epic proportions. The music is breathtaking, and the plot follows a spaceship that crosses the universe, searching for the source of life itself.
One of the main characters in this part of the film is a computer, which controls and monitors most of the ship's functions. This computer, named HAL, has a human personality. He even has a comforting timbre to his “human” voice. For some reason, HAL rebels and begins to kill all the astronauts who are accompanying him on the mission. He tries to murder his creators.
HAL himself, the perfect machine of the future that we are trying to achieve so strongly represents our biggest nightmare: The destruction of humanity. And this in an era of technological invincibility.
Dave, the last surviving astronaut, escapes HAL's coolly plotted machinations and manages to dismantle him. Dave then continues the odyssey alone. In the end, Dave is captured in an inter-galactic net, apparently by the makers of the slab. We find him taken to an undefined place. In a small, stylishly furnished room, he grows old and ancient in a time-lapse sequence, until he appears on his own deathbed, incredibly withered. In the last moments of his life, he finds the strength to pull himself up and point to an object, which has suddenly appeared in the room. It is the enigmatic black "monolith", which initiated the entire space odyssey. Then, just as suddenly, a huge human embryo appears on the screen floating in outer space. Wide eyed, it turns to the viewing audience, and to the triumphant tones of "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," the film ends. There is no explanation, the film just ends. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
The powerfully depicted message of this film might be that our human intelligence that we are so proud of is just an expression of a higher intelligence, but if so, our entire technically achieved psychological comfort would be shaken and would need important refurbishing to itself and the surrounding world.
So what are the consequences of our quest for the universe? Maybe the fashion aspect is just the most harmless approach there can be, unless we design talking clothes with dangerous minds.
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