AN ESSAY ON SPACE

SUITS.
THE ASSAM VALLEY SCHOOL
PO BALIPARA SONITPUR DISTRICT 781008
ASSAM
INDIA
MAAM MINAKSHI BARUAH DAS (
HSMB@ASSAMVALLEYSCHOOL.COM )
BY : MAULIK JAIN
( MAULIKJAIN2011@GMAIL.COM )
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CLASS12
END OF CLASS 12 MARCH 2017

Humans are now spread across all corners of the globe, but
whats the next step?
According to Dr Al Globus, a NASA contractor and space
settlement expert, he says the next logical move is to colonise
Earth orbit.
And, he says barring any major national disasters, we could soon
have huge habitats floating around the planet by the end of the
century. Human civilization is conquering the world, there can be
a possibility when humans have to start staying in space. There
are a lot of complications but if it is possible we can have a
civilization on space . In my essay I would like the explain the
concept of radiation pressure through which we can have thin

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space suits which will become a necessity if a civilization is

going to exist on space .
This concept of thin space suits include a lot of concepts like
absorption,reflection , momentum of photon particles ,
atmospheric pressure , radiation pressure.

We have seen that electromagnetic waves carry energy. It

turns out that they also carry momentum. Consider the
following argument, due to Einstein. Suppose that we have
a railroad car of mass
and length
which is free to
move in one dimension Suppose that electromagnetic
radiation of total energy
is emitted from one end of the
car, propagates along the length of the car, and is then
absorbed at the other end. The effective mass of this
radiation is
(from Einstein's famous
relation
). At first sight, the process described
above appears to cause the center of mass of the system
to spontaneously shift. This violates the law of momentum
conservation (assuming the railway car is subject to no
external forces). The only way in which the center of
mass of the system can remain stationary is if the railway
car moves in the opposite direction to the direction of
propagation of the radiation. In fact, if the car moves by a
distance
then the centre of mass of the system is the
same before and after the radiation pulse provided that

It is assumed that

in this derivation.

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But, what actually causes the car to move? If the

radiation possesses momentum
then the car will recoil
with the same momentum as the radiation is emitted.
When the radiation hits the other end of the car then the
car acquires momentum

in the opposite direction, which

stops the motion. The time of flight of the radiation is

So, the distance traveled by a mass
in this time is

with momentum

giving

Thus, the momentum carried by electromagnetic radiation

equals its energy divided by the speed of light. The same
result can be obtained from the well-known relativistic
formula

Relating the energy

, momentum , and mass
of a
particle. According to quantum theory, electromagnetic
radiation is made up of massless particles called photons .
Thus,

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for individual photons, so the same must be true of

electromagnetic radiation as a whole. If follows from that the
momentum density
of electromagnetic radiation equals its
energy density over , so

Coming to my main point what is a spacde suit

A spacesuit is more than clothes astronauts wear in space. The suit is
really a small spacecraft. It protects the astronaut from the dangers of
being outside in space.

Why Do Astronauts Need Spacesuits?

Spacesuits help astronauts in many ways. The suits protect astronauts
from getting too hot or cold. Spacesuits also give astronauts oxygen to
breathe while they are working in space. The suits hold water to drink.
They also keep astronauts from getting hurt by space dust. Space dust
may not sound very dangerous. But when it moves faster than a bullet, the
dust can hurt someone. The suits even have special gold-lined visors to
protect eyes from bright sunlight.

What Are the Parts of a Spacesuit?

A spacesuit is made up of many parts. One part covers the astronaut's
chest. Another part covers the arms and connects to the gloves. The
helmet protects the head. And the last part covers the astronaut's legs and
feet. Some parts of the suit are made of many layers of material. Each
layer does something different. Some keep oxygen in the suit while others
protect astronauts from space dust.

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Under the suit, astronauts wear another piece of clothing. It covers their
body except for the head, hands and feet. Tubes are woven into it. Water
flows through the tubes to keep the astronaut cool.
On the back of the spacesuit is a backpack. The backpack holds oxygen so
astronauts can breathe. It also removes carbon dioxide that astronauts
have breathed out. The backpack also supplies electricity for the suit. A
fan moves the oxygen through the spacesuit. A water tank holds the
cooling water.
Connected to the back of the suit is a tool called SAFER. SAFER has
several small thruster jets. If an astronaut floated away from the space
station, he or she could use SAFER to fly back.

In space suits that use 20.7 kPa , the astronaut gets only 20.7 kPa 11.7
kPa = 9.0 kPa ( 68 Torr ; 1.3 psi ) of oxygen, which is about the alveolar
oxygen partial pressure attained at an altitude of 1,860 m (6,100 ft)
above sea level.

WHAT IS RADIATION PRESSURE

Radiation pressure is the pressure exerted upon any surface exposed
to electromagnetic radiation. Radiation pressure implies an interaction
between electromagnetic radiation and bodies of various types, including
clouds of particles or gases. The interactions can reabsorption, reflection,
or some of both (the common case). Bodies also emit radiation and thereby
experience a resulting pressure.
The forces generated by radiation pressure are generally too small to be
detected under everyday circumstances; however, they do play a crucial
role in some settings, such as astronomy and astrodynamics.

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By this diagram we can understand that the electromagnetic

radiation which will be used in the space suit emitted by a source
will be perfectly reflected. So the source will produce
electromagnetic radiation in the downward direction and the
lower surface wil
l reflect it completely . If we do not place a absorber in the first
layer again then the rays will not be absorbed and there will not
be a resulting pressure equal to atmospheric pressure in space.
We will place a absorber for every reflected ray. So beside a
absorber we will have a source to produce a ray to create
pressure in downward direction. This process of absorption and
reflection will take place all over the suit and so pressure will be
created inside the suit and pressure will be downwards and this
will reduce suit into two layers.

Radiation pressure by absorption

According to Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism, an electromagnetic
wave carries momentum, which can be transferred to a reflecting or
absorbing surface hit by the wave.
The energy flux (intensity) is expressed by the

, whose

magnitude we denote by S. S divided by the square of the speed of light in

free space is the density of the linear momentum of the electromagnetic
field. The time-averaged intensity

divided by the speed of light in free

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space is the radiation pressure exerted by an electromagnetic wave on the

surface of a target, if the wave is completely absorbed:
( Nm 2 or Pa )
where P is pressure, E f is Energy flux (intensity) in W/m 2, c is speed of
light in vacuum.

If the absorbing surface is planar at an angle to the radiation source,

the intensity across the surface will be reduced by the angle of the flux
and a reduction in the frontal area:
( Nm 2 or Pa )
For total absorption on an inclined surface, the case assumed here,
the momentum of the flux is delivered entirely to the surface in the
same direction that the flux had. The component of the momentum
normal to the surface creates the pressure on the surface, as given
above. The component tangent to the surface does not contribute to
the pressure. [5]

Radiation pressure by reflection (using particle model:

photons)
Electromagnetic radiation is quantized in particles called photons, the
particle aspect of its waveparticle duality. Photons are best explained
by quantum mechanics. Although photons are zero-rest mass particles,
they have the properties of energy and momentum, thus exhibit the
property of mass as they travel at light speed. The momentum of a photon
is given by:

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where p is momentum, h is Planck's constant, is wavelength, m is

mass, and c is speed of light in vacuum. This expression shows the
waveparticle duality.

is the mass-energy relationship where E is the energy. Then

The generation of radiation pressure results from the momentum

property of photons, specifically, changing the momentum when
incident radiation strikes a surface. The surface exerts a force on
the photons in changing their momentum by Newton's Second
Law. A reactive force is applied to the body by Newton's Third
Law.
The orientation of a reflector determines the component of
momentum normal to its surface, and also affects the frontal area
of the surface facing the energy source. Each factor contributes a
cosine function, reducing the pressure on the surface. [6] The
pressure experienced by a perfectly reflecting planar surface is
then:
( Nm 2 or Pa )
where P is pressure, E f is the energy flux (intensity) in
W/m 2, c is speed of light in vacuum, is the angle between the
surface normal and the incident radiation.

Thus we can reduce fat space suits to thin ones by using only
radiation pressure.

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