"Since its earliest days, flight has been about pushing the limits of technology and, in many cases, pushing the limits of human endurance. The human body can be the limiting factor in the design of aircraft and spacecraft. Humans cannot survive unaided at high altitudes. There have been a number of books written on the subject of spacesuits, but the literature on the high-altitude pressure suits is lacking. This volume provides a high-level summary of the technological development and operational use of partial- and full-pressure suits, from the earliest models to the current high altitude, full-pressure suits used for modern aviation, as well as those that were used for launch and entry on the Space Shuttle. The goal of this work is to provide a resource on the technology for suits designed to keep humans alive at the edge of space."--NTRS Web site.

The lack of widespread education in space safety engineering and management has profound effects on project team effectiveness in integrating safety during design. On one side, it slows down the professional development of junior safety engineers, while on the other side it creates a sectarian attitude that isolates safety engineers from the rest of the project team. To speed up professional development, bridge the gap within the team, and prevent hampered communication and missed feedback, the entire project team needs to acquire and develop a shared culture of space safety principles and techniques.The second edition of Safety Design for Space Systems continues to address these issues with substantial updates to chapters such as battery safety, life support systems, robotic systems safety, and fire safety. This book also features new chapters on crew survivability design and nuclear space systems safety. Finally, the discussion of human rating concepts, safety-by-design principles, and safety management practices have also been revised and improved. With contributions from leading experts worldwide, this second edition represents an essential educational resource and reference tool for engineers and managers working on space projects. - Provides basic multidisciplinary knowledge on space systems safety design - Addresses how space safety engineering and management can be implemented in practice - Includes new chapters on crew survivability design and nuclear space systems safety - Fully revised and updated to reflect the latest developments in the field

Encompassing all occupants of aircraft and spacecraft—passengers and crew, military and civilian—Fundamentals of Aerospace Medicine, 5th Edition, addresses all medical and public health issues involved in this unique medical specialty. Comprehensive coverage includes everything from human physiology under flight conditions to the impact of the aviation industry on public health, from an increasingly mobile global populace to numerous clinical specialty considerations, including a variety of common diseases and risks emanating from the aerospace environment. This text is an invaluable reference for all students and practitioners who engage in aeromedical clinical practice, engineering, education, research, mission planning, population health, and operational support.

At the intersection of science, art, and design, this must-have coffee table book highlights 100 mind-blowing colors that you’ve likely never seen before. From Instagram sensation and self-described "mad scientist artist" Tyler Thrasher and creator of the popular Matter subscription box Terry Mudge, this book comes with a foreword by Hank Green. This gorgeous compendium contains 100 amazing colors that you might otherwise live your whole life unaware of. These colors exist in the strangest of places, and serve extremely specific functions in nature, or were human-made with one goal in mind. In this oversized, design-forward book you'll find entries for each of the 100 colors, organized in gradient order, with structural and impossible colors set at the end. Each entry has a 2-page spread with a full-page image of the color plus snappy descriptions, and easy-to-understand category symbols. Some entries include diagrams. Even includes structural colors and colors outside the range of human visibility! Also included is a brief introduction to color theory, a myth-busting section, plus index, glossary, and notes. Here is your universe in living color: Cosmic Latte: The average color of the universe. Dragon’s Blood: A tropical tree that bleeds red resin with incredible medicinal potential. Sonoluminescence: A color created by sound! Eigengrau: The color we perceive in the absence of light (and no, it's not "pitch black"). Perfect for anyone who loves science or art, and bursting with astonishing facts and stunning photography, The Universe in 100 Colors is a wonder for the senses.

The definitive story of pressure suits began long ago and has involved a great many people who aided in perfecting the present state of the art, as this book well chronicles. Many of these people were visionaries who anticipated the need for such highly specialized equipment long before it could actually be employed in any practical application. A remarkable number of pressure suit designs were developed early on, the vast majority of which never made it into flight, amounting to little more than science projects. Nonetheless, these early “experiments” informed later work, which led to practical pressure suits when they were needed for high altitude flight. All successful pressure suit designs have been the result of efforts to address a specific need in a specific application, beginning with Wiley Post’s pressure suit designed for use in his Lockheed Vega, the Winnie Mae. Long considered the granddaddy of modern pressure suits, Post’s suit was employed principally for protection from hypoxia rather than decompression sickness, since his Lockheed Vega’s altitude ceiling was 50,000 feet. The first operational full-pressure suit employed (in the D-558-2 Douglas Sky-Rocket) for flight above 50,000 feet was also the result of a collaboration between suit designers and pilot (Scott Crossfield). This close collaboration continued on for the development of the landmark full pressure suit for the X-15 program. The X-15 suit first employed link-net material, originally conceived for the neck section of early U-2 pilots. Helmets aid pressurized mobility, for the entire restraint layer of the suit. This unique material greatly facilitated custom suit fitting and enhanced pilot comfort and remains in use to the present. Thus, the X-15 suit is really the granddaddy of modern-day pressure suits as it led directly to the standardized military full-pressure suits that followed and continue to be used in service to the present. Further, the X-15’s high performance required that the pressure suit be capable of withstanding exposure to extreme altitudes, temperatures, and high-Q ejections, thus setting the stage to satisfy similar requirements for later programs, namely the A-12, SR-71, XB-70 and Space Shuttle.

This is the story of the work of the original NASA space pioneers; men and women who were suddenly organized in 1958 from the then National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) into the Space Task Group. A relatively small group, they developed the initial mission concept plans and procedures for the U. S. space program. Then they boldly built hardware and facilities to accomplish those missions. The group existed only three years before they were transferred to the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas, in 1962, but their organization left a large mark on what would follow.Von Ehrenfried's personal experience with the STG at Langley uniquely positions him to describe the way the group was structured and how it reacted to the new demands of a post-Sputnik era. He artfully analyzes how the growing space program was managed and what techniques enabled it to develop so quickly from an operations perspective. The result is a fascinating window into history, amply backed up by first person documentation and interviews.

Designed as a stopgap measure to provide overhead reconnaissance capability during the early years of the Cold War, the versatile U-2 has since evolved to meet changing requirements well into the 21st century. Though many authors have documented the airplane's operational history, few have made more than a cursory examination of its technical aspects or its role as a NASA research platform. This volume includes an overview of the origin and development of the Lockheed U-2 family of aircraft with early National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) involvement, construction and materials challenges faced by designers and builders, releasable performance characteristics and capabilities, use of U-2 and ER-2 airplanes as research platforms, and technical and programmatic lessons learned.