Customer Reviews

US Spacesuits (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For a book on a techncial subject, it appears to be well laid out and easy to read. I liked that it took the time to explain the basics surrounding spacesuits. Finding accurate information on spacesuit, their development, use and program history is difficult. This book, like "Russian Spacesuits" from the same publisher, was written by career spacesuit engineers and the text seems to reflect that depth of knowledge.

This book is a great book and a Great companion to Springer-Praxis other space books, especially the volume on Russian Spacesuits and "Spacewalks". It has taught me so much that I never knew and I loved the many pages written about conceptual designs.

Thomas & McCann's US SPACESUITS provides an extremely thorough historical survey of the evolution of US spacesuits. In terms of the sheer detail and intensity of research, it is hard to see how anyone could better it, and given the obscurity of the topic, it's a blessing that some folks decided they wanted to take on the job before all the details were lost to history.

Unfortunately, the thoroughness of this book is also its worst feature, since the authors simply lacked the ability to organize all the detail in a coherent fashion; it's written at the level of a rough draft, notes crammed together as best as possible and then rolled out the door. Admittedly the complexity of the subject makes organization a challenge, and I've certainly seen much more poorly written books, but US SPACESUITS still ends up an opaque read, a packed tangle of details, with no roadsigns to determine which are more significant than others and where the narrative is going.

It would have greatly helped to have had an overview as the first section in a chapter and then a chapter summary at the end. I ended up regarding this book as a reference, but even then it leaves something to be desired, since I find it very difficult to track down any one detail I'm after -- the index leaves something to be desired as well. Five stars for research, two stars for writing; give it three stars overall, because it just can't be rated at four.

This is a highly detailed book on the history of the development of US spacesuits. The book covers not just operational suits used in the space program, but also prototype development to test various concepts.

Compared to Russian spacesuit development, it is apparent that the US was able to expend considerably more in development of designs and resulted in a much richer array of design ideas. Particularly interesting is the issue of joint mobility, especially with gloves.

The illustrations are good, although I personally would have liked more details on the actually engineering of the suit components. Although I understand cost constraints, this book would have benefited from clear color photos of the suits and components, rather than just B&W. However this is a nit pick to what is a very informative book.

...and let me play among the stars..."
But how to dress for such jaunts? In theory the idea of a space suit is as old as the idea of spaceflight itself. Actual manned spaceflight is four and a half decades old, but there has been a need for protective suits for high-flying pilots for quite a lot more more than half a century now. And here is the development history of these different garments for gentlemen and nowadays also ladies to wear at any function inside and outside the walls of a spacecraft. Here they all are, from the Imperial German Flying Corp Oxygen Pipe System, ca 1918, to the University of Maryland MX-2 suit prototype of 2002. All the more than 100 designs in almost bewildering detail, with specifications of most of them, thankfully, in both imperial psis and BTUs and (albeit within parentheses) metric measurements. Spacesuits have come a long way, but there is still way to go, before us normal gents and our ladies will feel comfortably dressed for a little play in weightless space or a stroll on the lunar surface. Indeed a "must" book for any aficionado and armchair astronaut!