The history of the spacesuit is something that you don’t tend to think about. What you tend to see is the launch vehicle. Be that the giant Saturn V or the not as large Mercury-Atlas.
What isn’t thought about is the suit that helps get the squidgy human into space and onto the moon. The suit has changed over the last fifty years. From the simple pressure suit of the Mercury days to the ones that are worn when going outside of the International Space Station. Today’s smallest space vehicle.
Yes, you did read that correctly. The spacesuit that the Apollo astronauts wore on the moon was the worlds smallest spacecraft. The only difference between that and the Lunar Lander was that it had to bend! It contained everything that the lander contained, OK not all but you get the idea! It had to protect the human inside from the rigures of space. Be that the heat of the sun, being hit by debris flying about, keeping them in contact with each other and mission control back on Earth. All that and not forgetting keeping them alive with a breathable atmosphere and removing bodily waste.
Most of the spacesuits that have been used are not designed to be used in space but to protect the wearer if the vehicle lost pressure. In other words, got a leak! Apart from the ones worn in the early days of the Shuttle era. They were just coveralls with a helmet that had air pumped into.
I’m only going to be talking about American suits as that’s what I know the most about.
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Some of the information above has been taken from Wikipedia. It just saved me time thinking about what to say and finding the images on one of NASA’s websites.