Why do spacesuits cover the whole body?

Question

Why can't spacesuits cover only the head down to the neck? Or maybe be more like scuba gear so the person can breathe. This would give people more agility allowing them to do more complex maneuvers.

Answer 1

Without the suit covering the whole body, pressure inside your body would cause your body to explode in the vacuum of space.

Answer 2

Space is a vacuum. Though your body won't explode, you may swell up, and the difference in pressure might give you trouble with your eardrums and lungs if you weren't wearing a helmet. Also, the temperature in space is absolute zero: 0º Kelvin, which is -273º Celsius. You would not survive long under such conditions. Radiation is also a big problem, as out in space you won't be protected by an atmosphere. Sunburn ain't got nothing on it. To quote wikipedia:

"Vacuum is primarily an asphyxiant. Humans exposed to vacuum will lose consciousness after a few seconds and die within minutes, but the symptoms are not nearly as graphic as commonly shown in pop culture. Robert Boyle was the first to show that vacuum is lethal to small animals. Blood and other body fluids do boil (the medical term for this condition is ebullism), and the vapour pressure may bloat the body to twice its normal size and slow circulation, but tissues are elastic and porous enough to prevent rupture. Ebullism is slowed by the pressure containment of blood vessels, so some blood remains liquid. SWELLING AND EBULLISM CAN BE REDUCED BY CONTAINMENT IN A FLIGHT SUIT. Shuttle astronauts wear a fitted elastic garment called the Crew Altitude Protection Suit (CAPS) which prevents ebullism at pressures as low as 15 Torr (2 kPa). However, even if ebullism is prevented, simple evaporation can cause decompression sickness and gas embolisms. Rapid evaporative cooling of the skin will create frost, particularly in the mouth, but this is not a significant hazard."

These three links are pretty good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_adaptation_to_space

http://science.howstuffworks.com/space-suit.htm

Answer 3

In principle a spacesuit need only be a densely woven if porous garment exerting 5 psi pressure plus a sealed helmet for ventilation with 5 psi pure oxygen. In practice soft particulate and photon radiation, deep ultraviolet, zooming microdebris, and temperature concerns in shadow and sunlight dictate some degree of armor.

There is the matter of garment failure. You don't want to be extruded into vacuum through a tear. How would you explain the hickey to your wife?

Answer 4

Ever get a "hickey"?

Those are caused by applying a partial vacuum to the skin.

Ever hear of "the bends"?

Divers are killed because the pressure on blood vessels is reduced, and gasses in the blood, most notably nitrogen, are no longer soluble.

A space suit isn't just for providing air to the body - it's for providing pressure.

Pilots flying the X-15 had to wear pressure suits, even though they weren't in vacuum but in a reduced pressure environment. They weren't "hard shells", but were rather elastic suits, and although they allowed more range of motion, they weren't entirely satisfactory.

What you propose would result in a highly painful death.

Answer 5

Cuz there's space dust & gamma rays are everywhere in space. Those things can go through your body and you can die from it. That's why we need to cover everything up with special material. But did you know that the spacesuit isn't 100% space dust proof? Yep, astronauts are still suffering from space radiation sicknesses, and NASA is still trying to develop the safest spacesuit for them.

Answer 6

The suit has to be pressurized. Atmospheric pressure at sea level is 14.7 pounds per square inch, and atmospheric pressure in space is 0 pounds per square inch, so every part of the body has to be covered and adequately pressurized or else the astronauts would literally explode.

Answer 7

When u see a astronaut standing on the moon in the sunlight it is +350 deg.F. in the shadow of a rock it can be -200 deg. F. are u that tough??

Answer 8

The body's blood begins to boil through the blood vessels in a vacuum.