I have duct tape in my tool box. Let’s slap some on and see if it slows the flow. I wonder how long it will last before the pressure rips it. Putting it on now.
There we go… still holding…
Lemme check the suit… Readouts say the pressure is stable. Looks like the duct tape made a good seal.
Let’s see if it holds…
RECORDING:
It’s been 15 minutes, and the tape is still holding. Looks like that problem is solved.
Sort of anticlimactic, really. I was already working out how to cover the breach with ice. I have 2 liters of water in the EVA suit’s “hamster-feeder”. I could have shut off the suit’s heating systems and let the airlock cool to freezing. Then I’d… well whatever.
Coulda’ done it with ice. I’m just sayin’.
All right. On to my next problem: How do I fix the EVA suit? Duct tape might seal a hairline crack, but it can’t hold an atmosphere of pressure against the size of my broken faceplate.
The patch kit is too small, but still useful. I can spread the resin around the edge of where the faceplate was, then stick something on to cover the hole. Problem is, what do I use to cover the hole? Something that can stand up to a lot of pressure.
Looking around, the only thing I see that can hold an atmosphere is the EVA suit itself. There’s plenty of material to work with, and I can even cut it. Remember when I was cutting Hab canvas in to strips? Those same sheers are right here in my tool kit.
Cutting a chunk out of my EVA suit leaves it with another hole. But a hole I can control the shape and location of.
Yeah… I think I see a solution here. I’m going to cut off my arm!
Well, no. Not
Material designed to withstand atmospheric pressure? Check.
Resin designed to seal a breach against that pressure? Check.
And what about the gaping hole on the stumpy arm? Unlike my faceplate, the suit’s material is flexible. I’ll press it together and seal it with resin. I’ll have to press my left arm against my side while I’m in the suit, but there’ll be room.
I’ll be spreading the resin pretty thin, but it’s literally the strongest adhesive known to man. And it doesn’t have to be a perfect seal. It just has to last long enough for me to get to safety.
And where will that “safety” be? Not a damn clue.
Anyway, one problem at a time. Right now I’m fixing the EVA suit.
RECORDING:
Cutting the arm off the suit was easy; so was cutting along its length to make a rectangle. Those sheers are strong as hell.
Cleaning the glass off the faceplate took longer than I’d expected. It’s unlikely it would puncture EVA suit material, but I’m not taking any chances. Besides, I don’t want glass in my face when I’m wearing it.
Then came the tricky part. Once I broke the seal on the patch kit, I had 60 seconds before the resin set. I scooped it off the patch kit with my fingers and quickly spread it around the rim of the faceplate. Then, I took what was left and sealed the arm hole.
I pressed the rectangle of suit material on to the helmet. I held it firmly with both hands while using my knee to keep pressure on the arm’s seam.
I held on until I’d counted 120 seconds. Just to be sure.
It seemed to work well. The seal looked strong and the resin was rock-hard. I did, however, glue my hand to the helmet.
Stop laughing.
In retrospect, using my fingers to spread the resin wasn’t the best plan. Fortunately, my left hand was still free. After some grunting and a lot of profanities, I was able to reach the tool box. Once I got a screwdriver I chiseled myself free (feeling really stupid the whole time.)
Using the arm computer, I had the suit overpressurize to 1.2 atmospheres. The faceplate patch bowed outward, but otherwise held firm. The arm filled in, threatening to tear the new seam, but stayed in one piece.
Then I watched the readouts to see how airtight things were.
Answer: Not very.
The suit is designed for 8 hours of use. That works out to 250ml of liquid oxygen. Just to be safe, the suit has a full liter of O2 capacity. But that’s only half the story.
The rest of the air is nitrogen. It’s just there to add pressure. When the suit leaks, that’s what it backfills with. The suit has 2 liters of liquid N2 storage.
It absolutely
Let’s call the volume of the airlock 2 cubic meters. The inflated EVA suit probably takes up half of it. So it took 5 minutes to add 0.2 atmospheres to 1 cubic meter. That’s 285g of air (trust me on the math). The air in the tanks is around 1 gram per cubic centimeter, meaning I just lost 285ml.