Sokol KV-2 spacesuit worn by Soviet cosmonaut Gennadi Manakov in 1990. Image Courtesy Powerhouse Museum
Previously, my colleague Margaret Simpson wrote about clothing worn during Douglas Mawson’s 1911-1914 expedition in the extreme environment of Antarctica. Space is also an extreme environment that requires its explorers to wear a specialised garment for survival: the spacesuit. A spacesuit is like a miniature spacecraft in itself, designed to protect the wearer from the harsh vacuum environment of space while conducting an extravehicular activity (‘spacewalk’), or in the event that the life support system of their spacecraft fails.
Continue reading ‘History Week 2012 Threads – Dressed for Space’
