I grew up wanting to be an astronaut. My hobby before going to college was building amature rockets, and today I build rockets for a living in Huntsville. I never grew out of this phase, and with everything going on with commercial I still plan to go to space in my lifetime.
There has been a lot going on that revitalized my intrest in space. I visited both Air and Space museums in DC this spring, and the news has been filled with reports about shuttles, space jumps, and mars rovers. While I am still interested in rocketry, I have been reading up on the history of pressure garments and how to say alive up there, and I figure a wearable cosmetic suit is a good starting point for hands-on research.
The first piece I started working on is the bubble helmet, as I dont have any means to make one from scratch. Living in Huntsville, a co-worker who collects space artifacts provided what we believe is a traing helmet from the Apollo days.
IMG_0276 by 2StoryProps, on Flickr
IMG_0277 by 2StoryProps, on Flickr
The helmet was in really bad shape as it was being thrown out when my co-worker got it. It was full of grim, scratches, and the paint on the back was peeling off. The first thing I did was give the helmet a good polish using a drill press and headlight restoring kit.
IMG_0280 by 2StoryProps, on Flickr
The old paint was then sanded off, and the back repainted with gloss white (a really apollo helmet is clear all the way around, but there is no good way for me to make the back look like the rest of the helmet.
IMG_0285 by 2StoryProps, on Flickr
IMG_0288 by 2StoryProps, on Flickr
Using Muslin, I made a template for the back padding (what ever was in this helmet before was lost to time) and then made the final one out of white cotton and batting.
IMG_0293 by 2StoryProps, on Flickr
IMG_0301 by 2StoryProps, on Flickr
IMG_0302 by 2StoryProps, on Flickr
Next I'll be working on a duct-tape manaquin so I can start working on the torso layout, and converting a pair of long johns into a liquid cooling garment.
There has been a lot going on that revitalized my intrest in space. I visited both Air and Space museums in DC this spring, and the news has been filled with reports about shuttles, space jumps, and mars rovers. While I am still interested in rocketry, I have been reading up on the history of pressure garments and how to say alive up there, and I figure a wearable cosmetic suit is a good starting point for hands-on research.
The first piece I started working on is the bubble helmet, as I dont have any means to make one from scratch. Living in Huntsville, a co-worker who collects space artifacts provided what we believe is a traing helmet from the Apollo days.
IMG_0276 by 2StoryProps, on Flickr
IMG_0277 by 2StoryProps, on Flickr
The helmet was in really bad shape as it was being thrown out when my co-worker got it. It was full of grim, scratches, and the paint on the back was peeling off. The first thing I did was give the helmet a good polish using a drill press and headlight restoring kit.
IMG_0280 by 2StoryProps, on Flickr
The old paint was then sanded off, and the back repainted with gloss white (a really apollo helmet is clear all the way around, but there is no good way for me to make the back look like the rest of the helmet.
IMG_0285 by 2StoryProps, on Flickr
IMG_0288 by 2StoryProps, on Flickr
Using Muslin, I made a template for the back padding (what ever was in this helmet before was lost to time) and then made the final one out of white cotton and batting.
IMG_0293 by 2StoryProps, on Flickr
IMG_0301 by 2StoryProps, on Flickr
IMG_0302 by 2StoryProps, on Flickr
Next I'll be working on a duct-tape manaquin so I can start working on the torso layout, and converting a pair of long johns into a liquid cooling garment.
Last edited: