Aeromax Astronaut Boots

Product Information

NASA uses a suit called an ‘Extravehicular Mobility Unit’ (EMU) while Russia’s cosmonauts wear an ‘Orlan’ suit (Russian for ‘eagle’). Both of these suits and their corresponding boots are functionally very similar – they are designed to allow a crew member to perform operations in the vacuum of space while in the immediate vicinity of a spacecraft, although neither is designed for use on the surface of a body like the Moon or Mars. The current Chinese spacesuit was based on the Russian Orlan-M design and was worn by astronaut Zhai Zhigang during China's first-ever spacewalk on September 27th 2008. As can be expected, the boots that he and fellow astronaut Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin wore that day had to meet the most stringent safety and performance specifications. These consisted of two main parts – an inner ‘pressure boot’ with a flexible sole which was worn by the crew during their time in space, and a galosh that was strapped on over the inner boot prior to stepping onto the Moon. Most live testing of the spacesuits and boots took place in environmental chambers, although a limited amount of testing ‘in the field’ did take place in the USA’s closest representation of the lunar surface – Arizona.

Much of what is necessary for boots to be suitable for exploration on Mars is therefore similar to that required for the missions to the Moon. The sole of the boots will need to be quite stiff to accommodate any uneven ground that the astronauts will need to traverse. Having said that, there are additional types of terrain on Mars that were not found during the Apollo missions. For instance, while it is unlikely that the astronauts would be expected to climb, much of the Martian surface is mountainous, so specific equipment – such as crampons – could feasibly be required, and footwear for exploration may have to accommodate such accessories. There are currently three nations which have manned space programmes – the USA, Russia and China, although a number of other countries have announced plans for limited goals for the future. China became the third nation to achieve independent human spaceflight capability by sending Yang Liwei on a 21-hour flight on 15th October 2003. Due to Health and Hygiene reasons we are unable to accept underwear garments unless they are faulty. If you return an item for exchange, you will have to pay a repost fee, to have the replacement sent to you. Because NASA did not really know what the surface of the Moon was like, there was a fear that the Lunar Module or the astronauts themselves would sink into the dust. However, as with the Mercury and Gemini programmes, the organisation had some smart people working for it, and their judgment of the Moon’s surface was right, so there was a reasonably firm surface on which to stand.A new design for boots was needed for the first ‘extra-vehicular activity’ (EVA) ‘spacewalk’. Because of the astronaut being in free space, NASA had to produce a thermal cover for the existing Gemini footwear, to take account of the extreme environment the equipment would now be expected to cope with. The outer boot consisted of 12 layers of biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate (boPET) – a polyester film (commonly called ‘Mylar’) made from stretched polyethylene terephthalate (PET). This was selected for its high tensile strength, chemical and dimensional stability, reflectivity, gas barrier and electrical insulation properties. This footwear also included a nonwoven PET product and a fibreglass/ polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) inner liner material.

As head of advanced development, Joe Kosmo worked on the design of a number of space suits used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), beginning with the Mercury programme in the 1960s – including the boots used by astronauts for spacewalks and during the Moon landings. Originally an aeronautical engineer, Mr Kosmo was approached in the early days with an interesting proposition – to help develop life support systems for space suits. At first, he was unsure about how his skills could be put to use, saying: “I don’t know much about space suits.” Prototypes for the Apollo boots were first designed in 1962 and, within six years, a definitive design had been forged. During the Apollo programme, this footwear gradually evolved, with the last changes made in 1972. Rather than looking to traditional, clunky moon boots for inspiration, Reebok and DCC modeled their new space boot after Reebok's Floatride Run athletic shoes, which contain ultralight foam that adds comfort without adding too much weight to the midsole. "On the space boot, the rubber traction, the float foam and the stabilizing foam that sits above the float foam are identical to the Floatride Run, so the feel underfoot will feel very similar," Hobson explained. Reebok named its new boot the Floatride SB-01. There are both subtle and more prominent construction variations between both styles which include the below: Ed White was the first NASA astronaut to leave the protection of his spacecraft when he ‘walked’ in space for 22 minutes in June 1965. The boots he wore did all that was expected of them and proved a valuable stepping-stone to achieving the stated goal of putting a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s. Walking on the Moon

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With their matching boots and spacesuits, astronauts will be riding in style on Boeing's future flights to the space station. But more importantly, the new apparel will help make spaceflight more comfortable for astronauts than ever before. We will not accept the return of any item(s) that has been modified, this includes but is not limited to the application of shoe care products, footwear that has been re-soled, footwear that has been stretched, belts that have been resized. With temperatures on Mars ranging from a low of -176°C (-284°F) to a high of +30°C (+86°F), the boots will have to be designed with a proactive heating/cooling system. An ideal system to maintain foot temperature would use a liquid, especially if it has a high specific heat capacity.