Moon Landing Meltdown Apollo 11 Spacesuits Gradually Disintegrating
They were built to protect the fragile bodies of humans in outer space. Temperatures on the moon swing from 120 degrees Celsius (248 degrees Fahrenheit) by day to minus 150 degrees Celsius (minus 238 degrees Fahrenheit) by night. The spacesuits were even intended to withstand strikes by minuscule meteorites. But time is taking its toll on the suits the Apollo 11 astronauts wore when they set foot on the moon for the first time on July 20, 1969.
"Three factors have caused the suits to deteriorate -- light, humidity and temperature," Cathleen Lewis, curator of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. The humid summers in the US capital are doing more damage than the air vacuum and the drastic temperature swings the suits were exposed to on the moon.
The rubber is corroding, the metal parts are rusting and the plastic parts are disintegrating.
The spacesuits consist of 21 layers of different materials. Closest to the body is a soft overall into which plastic tubes for water circulation were sewed. The next layer is made of nylon with ventilation slits, followed by a multilayered suit made of various synthetic materials for pressurization. The waist, knees and elbows were cushioned with foam rubber. A polyethylene terephthalate (PET) foil combined with other fireproof materials protected the astronauts from the heat. The outer coating is made of white Teflon.
Moon Dust Gets Everywhere
The suits also have metal parts such as zips made of copper and plastic connections for pipes. One additional component that wasn't part of the design is moon dust. "The suits are incredibly dirty," says Lewis. "The dust has become deeply embedded in the fabric -- it's very, very tough dust."
The plastic parts are the main problem because they corrode over time if exposed to air and ultraviolet light. 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. "It liquefies. And the softeners cling to other fabric layers and can't be removed easily," says Lewis.
The metal components on zips as well as on the neck and glove connection parts are a further problem. Air humidity alone can make them rust. "And one mustn't forget that Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins sweated heavily in their suits," Lewis said. The aggressive salt of the sweat that has encrusted the suits for 40 years is contributing to the metal corrosion.
No Conservation Method
Not much can be done to stop the gradual disintegration. "We keep down the humidity, light levels and the temperature in the glass cases," Lewis says. "And we have to exhibit the suits opened to let air circulate in them. Otherwise the suits create a microclimate in which the corrosion would happen even more quickly." As a result the helmets with their gold-coated visors and the gloves with silicone finger tips have to be exhibited separately.
There's no single method for conserving spacesuits because each mission had different suits made from different materials. "The older suits of the Mercury program for example had metallic writing printed on them. That's eating into the fabric," said Lewis.
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. The corrosion can't be stopped. "We can only try to slow it down," says Lewis. Her colleague Mary Baker adds: "The Mona Lisa will still be around in 500 years. The Apollo suits won't."
