Customer Reviews

The Origins and Technology of the Advanced Extra-Vehicular Space Suit, History of Rocketry and Astronautics (AAS History Series, Volume 24)

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Gary Harris wrote the most precise and complete space suits book ever. I thought I knew some about space suits design, but after reading "The Origins and Technology of the Advanced Extra-Vehicular Space Suit" I learned a lot more. This book is so interesting and passionate about the history and development of advanced EVA suits. Full of good photos and explanatory drawings it is a MUST for any serious reader interested in space suits. The book also cover technical issues, so it is useful for the engineer, scientist and student.
I predict this book will become a classic for life support systems and EVA engineers in the years to come.

The author also outlines the intricate procedure followed by NASA in contracting a space suit. NASA doesn't select a space suit; it selects a conractor. It involves a whole range of considerations such as cost, integration of the PLSS and suit, who were the contractor's key personnel, design and test philosophy of the contractor, certfication method, prior experience, who the subcontractors were, scheduling and delivery, and how compatible the suit system is with the spacecraft. In addition, blatant national political factors more than likely affected contractor selection; how much money was NASA already spending in the respective states of the suit competitors, who were the states' representatives and did NASA owe the representative any potical favors?

This volume is Bible of the space suits, covered in over 500 pages in fine print. It addresses almost all issues relating to the EVA suit in one volume. It is perhaps the only source book of space suits. It is rare occassion that an entire volume of the AAS History Series is devoted to a single topiuc, which indeed is an honor to the author. In Indian context, may be the ISRO has no plans to design a space suit, since there are no plans of any manned space mission as of today, but eventually it will have. This book will serve as a reference in design specification and technical details of the various types of EVA suits and their suitability for a particular mission.

Bound in blue hard cover as usual, the book has a illustration of the Litton RX-5A hard suit being demonstrated on a simulated lunar surface.

Mr. Harris has written an excellent book on the history of the EVA suit. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the design of EVA suits and how they got to where they are today. Mr. Harris goes into enough detail to allow you to understand how the various suits work (both pros and cons) but not so much as to bore the reader. For those who want more detail, there is an extensive list of resources in the book. In short, if you want to learn about EVA suits, buy this book and read it.

Incredible book, absolutely incredible. I got it on inter-library loan to check it out first, now I'm going to buy it. Book is packed with details -- plss diagrams, joint cross-sections, the works. I've been unable to get good info on hardsuits -- this is loaded with details. A fantastic reference.

This book covers a lot of territory and is essential to learning the fundamentals of space suit engineering. Not only does Mr. Harris trace the history of the space suit, he also discusses practical engineering matters. This book contains rare photographs in addition to drawings by the author that illustrate the space suit components, assemblies, and concepts. I have read most other popular books on space suits, but this one packs the most information by far. This book is logically segmented and can be used as an excellent reference. For a true appreciation for the challenges of space suit engineering, this is the book to get.

If you want to REALLY learn a lot about the development of suits, the technical tradeoffs and see how the bidding process and internal conflicts helped and hindered the US suit evolution, BUY THIS BOOK.

Hardcover is the choice, as you'll read this over and over. There's a lot here, you'll want to read it in installments. Rockets are flashy, but spacesuits protect the men that went into space.

I work for Caterpillar and we deal with these: the advantage (and trade-offs) of choosing a set technical path / solution and how this impacts the later generations of any product. It applies to everything we use and buy, but it's REALLY intersting to see for a spacesuit.