Photo Gallery Apollo Spacesuits Disintegrating
The Command Module of Apollo 11 at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. The spacesuits of the crew -- Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins -- are among the most popular exhibits.
The museum displays this 40-year-old lunar module, one of 12 built for the Apollo space program. The module is in fine shape but the spacesuits are causing concern.
"Apollo" spacesuit worn by Alan Shepard. The space suits consist of 21 layers of different materials.
Neil Armstrong (L), and Buzz Aldrin (R) walked on the moon while their colleague Michael Collins (center) had to watch from the Command Module. The waist, knees and elbows were cushioned with foam rubber to allow the astronauts to move. A polyethylene terephthalate (PET) foil combined with other fireproof materials protected the astronauts against heat. The outer coating is made of white Teflon.
Aldrin on the moon. The apscesuits are caked in moon dust. "The suits are incredibly dirty," said Cathleen Lewis, curator of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington. "The dust has become deeply embedded in the fabric -- it's very, very tough dust."
Alan Shepard's suit in the the Kennedy Space Center. The plastic most used in the spacesuits is polyvinylchloride, better know as PVC. Softeners are used to make the hard material flexible enough to work with. The problem is that over time, the softening agent seeps out of the PVC and the material becomes brittle and sticky.
The biggest problem of the Apollo 11 suits is that they're the exhibit everyone wants to see. No other suits have spent so much time in the light and the air of the exhibition halls as the those worn by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.
Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin (1969). Nothing can stop the gradual disintegration of the spacesuits.
Aldrin on his way to the lunar surface: more than a billion people around the world were glued to their televisions to watch the moon landing.
Aldrin after deploying the Early Apollo Scientific Experiments Package (EASEP).
Jim Irwin on the "Apollo 15" mission in August 1971. Conservationists say the gradual disintegration of the spacesuits can only be slowed, not stopped.
Launch of "Apollo 11" on July 16, 1969. The "Saturn V" rocket thundered into the sky.
