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Technical Paper

Ultrasound Gas Bubble Detection During Simulation of Space Suit Operations

1995-07-01
951595
Extravehicular activity (EVA) is an essential part of space missions. When International Space Station ALPHA (ISSA) is fully operational, EVA assembly, installation, maintenance and repair operations will become everyday repetitive work activity in space. Due to the high cost of EVA sorties, a logical step is to try to improve the productivity of the EVA astronaut in order to increase the amount of labor per EVA hour and to optimize the work/rest regime. This is a main goal of decompression protocol development. In order to allow the astronauts sufficient productivity within the EVA space suit it is necessary to operate the suit with an internal pressure lower than 1 atmosphere. The suit pressure of approximately 0.3-0.4 atmosphere (30-40 kPa or 220-300 mm Hg ) induces the risk of decompression sickness (DCS) by the formation of gas bubbles (GB) from excess nitrogen dissolved in the organism by breathing air at normal pressure in the space cabin atmosphere.
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