Author Topic: Today's technology on the moon  (Read 2662 times)

Offline Kiwi

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Today's technology on the moon
« on: May 16, 2017, 05:55:16 AM »
Boy, I'd like to redesign all that stuff with today's technology. All transmissions would be digital. The suits, LRV, LM, CSM and earth station would all form a mesh network. All suit telemetry would be moved out of the voice band onto its own channels. Each microphone (2 per astronaut) would be given its own dedicated channel so that there would never be any ambiguity as to who was speaking, and the microphone giving the best voice quality would automatically be selected. The headphones would be stereo so each astronaut could place the other parties (Capcom, the other astronauts) at different points in the stereo image to make them easier to distinguish. And so on...

Aaawww, come on, more, please!

I wonder how they'll handle the lunar dust problem. That could be a big hazard on longer missions.

And after John and Charlie's Apollo 16 experience with the farts, they need a better system than that foul-tasting orange gunk for feeding the astronauts extra potassium.
Don't criticize what you can't understand. — Bob Dylan, “The Times They Are A-Changin'” (1963)
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Offline Allan F

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Re: Today's technology on the moon
« Reply #1 on: May 16, 2017, 07:29:44 AM »
A lot of dust could be handledby having disposable wraps around the boots and legs.

And tape. Lots of sticky tape.
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Offline ka9q

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Re: Today's technology on the moon
« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2017, 04:49:37 AM »
I like the idea of building the suits right into the airlock door, so you climb into them from inside the cabin, seal up the back, and then detach yourself from the outside of the cabin. All the dirty surfaces of the suits remain outside.

Offline smartcooky

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Re: Today's technology on the moon
« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2017, 07:56:32 AM »
I wonder if there might be some way of dealing with the dust electrostatically?

- Suit has some kind of electrostatic discharge surface that won't allow to dust to stick

- Astronaut enters airlock and after pressurization, plugs suit into wall outlet which electrostatically neutralizes the suit causing all the dust to shuck off. Any remaining dust is vacuumed off. Astronaut de-suits in the airlock.
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Offline Zakalwe

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Re: Today's technology on the moon
« Reply #4 on: May 17, 2017, 10:54:58 AM »
I like the idea of building the suits right into the airlock door, so you climb into them from inside the cabin, seal up the back, and then detach yourself from the outside of the cabin. All the dirty surfaces of the suits remain outside.

Suitport?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suitport
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Offline Glom

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Re: Today's technology on the moon
« Reply #5 on: May 19, 2017, 04:13:07 AM »
What about boot mics? Just throwing that out there. Sound transmitted through the ground could be recorded. Would that be of any use? Mics and bandwidth are cheap these days.

Of course, there would be camera galore on each astronaut, enough to produce 360 video.

Offline Dalhousie

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Re: Today's technology on the moon
« Reply #6 on: May 21, 2017, 02:45:00 AM »
Mechanical counter pressure EVA suits