America's Space Shuttle: Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Systems NASA Astronaut Training Manual (EMU SYS 2102)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), World Spaceflight News
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Space Shuttle Extravehicular Mobility Unit Systems Training Workbook
EMU SYS 2102
Mission Operations Directorate
September 1989 Rev A
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
Houston, Texas
Section 1: Extravehicular Mobility Unit
The extravehicular mobility unit (EMU) is an independent anthropomorphic system that provides environmental protection, mobility, life support, and communications for the Space Shuttle crewmember to perform extravehicular activity (EVA) in Earth orbit. An EVA is defined, for EMU design considerations, as any time the EMU external environmental pressure is below 4.0 psia.
The EMU is designed to accommodate an EVA mission with the following characteristics:
• Total duration of 7 hr maximum, consisting of 15 min for egress, 6 hr for useful EVA tasks, 15 min for ingress, and a 30-min reserve.
• An average metabolic rate not exceeding 1600 Btu/hr in any given EVA hour and not exceeding 1000 Btu/hr for the entire duration.
• A peak metabolic rate not exceeding 2000 Btu/hr for a period of 15 min.
• A minimum metabolic rate not less than 400 Btu/hr for a period of 30 min.
The EMU is an integrated assembly, primarily made up of the space suit assembly (SSA), life support system (LSS), and numerous items of associated support and ancillary equipment.
The space suit assembly consists of the following:
• Hard upper torso (HUT)/arms - The portion of the actual pressure suit above the waist, excluding the gloves and helmet (figures 1-2 and 1-3).
• Lower torso assembly (LTA) - The portion of the pressure suit below the waist, including the boots (figure 1-4).
• Extravehicular (EV) gloves - The anthropomorphic hand protection of the pressure suit (figure 1-5).
• Helmet/extravehicular visor assembly (EVVA) - The portion of the pressure suit providing pressurization for the head as well as impact, glare, and thermal protection (figure 1-6).
• Liquid cooling and ventilation garment (LCVG) - A garment worn under the pressure suit with sewn-in tubes to provide circulation of cooling water and for pickup of vent flow at the extremities (figure 1-7).
• Operational bioinstrumentation system (OBS; Biomed) - Instrumentation used to monitor the crewmember's heart rate during EVA (figure 1-8).
• Communications carrier assembly (CCA; Comm cap) - A cap worn under the helmet to position and hold crewmember's earphones and microphones (figure 1-9).
• In-suit drink bag (IDB) - A flexible container/dispenser used to provide drinking water to the crewmember while inside the space suit (figure 1-10).
• Urine collection device (UCD) - A device for collecting male crewmember's urine (figure 1-11).
• Disposable absorption containment trunk (DACT) - A garment for collecting female crewmember's urine (figure 1-12).
The life support system consists of the following:
• Primary life support subsystem (PLSS) - The back pack assembly that normally provides the EVA crewmember with oxygen for breathing, ventilation, pressurization, and water for cooling.
Integral to the PLSS are several sensors used by the caution and warning system (CWS) in monitoring life support system functions. Figures 1-13 and 1-14 show diagrams of the PLSS package. A secondary oxygen pack (SOP) is attached to the bottom of the PLSS. Figures 1-15 and 1-16 are closeups of the PLSS with and without the SOP installed, respectively. A back view of the PLSS is given in figure 1-17. The PLSS together with the SOP is installed on the back of the HUT and is covered with a multilayer thermal micrometeoroid garment (TMG), as shown in figure 1-18. The different components of the PLSS are discussed in sections 3.1 and 3.3 through 3.5.