Adam Savage Examines the Apollo A5-L Spacesuit!

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At the National Air and Space Museum’s Conservation Lab, Adam examines the A5-L, a blue developmental Apollo spacesuit designed to retain oxygen during periods of extra-vehicular activity or unpressurized spacecraft operation. Smithsonian objects conservator Lisa Young takes Adam and astronaut Cady Coleman on a tour of this pressure suit, which would have fit under the white outer cover we’re all more familiar with.
Shot and edited by Josh Self
Music by Jinglepunks
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#smithsonian #adamsavage #space
Thanks for watching!

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[@nfields03]

Absolutely love Cady and Lisa geeking out about polymer chains!

[@dalemcfaddenfuku9995]

lol

[@scottwilliams2510]

I couldn’t stop thinking about how stressed Lisa was every time Adam and Cady got close to the suit. She did a good job not freaking out

[@AndreasA.S.]

as just someone looking at it, i would have had gloves on myself, just in case

[@codemonkey2k5]

@@AndreasA.S. that was my thinking as well.

[@eachday9538]

They breathed on it way too much imo

[@jan_phd]

If they want accurate people of color going 'back' to the moon, have the Africans build the best space suits they can, and have everyone wear those.... right? Is NASA racist... give the Africans a chance, then... have women of color wear their suits on the moon. GO!

[@aserta]

@@AndreasA.S. Probably because i was raised with the museum mentality, i wouldn't go near it. Wouldn't get closer than a foot from it.

[@chuckvanderbildt]

This conservator is amazing. She knows *everything*

[@AndreasA.S.]

and willing to learn more, and even just refresh what she knows.

[@omaverick2870]

@@AndreasA.S. exactly. I love that

[@dcb1138]

Although she did say some stupid things about women's internal organs functioning differently than a man's. That was completely ignorant. 18:23. A women's gait IS different and center of gravity. But internal organs are the same.

[@omaverick2870]

@@dcb1138 You mean tits? at this point knowing that this is her job and she is in a particular position to handle actual spaca suits. Mybe we/re the stupid ones that don't get what she's saying.

[@mark110101]

@@dcb1138 I think NOT, Men don't have a womb, cervix or Uterus

[@donbeary6394]

All your visits to the Smithsonian are fascinating, but I think the suits are the most interesting, especially with Lisa, and Cady adding so much with their stories ... I am in absolute heaven 💖

[@AcousticProfit]

I love it when Adam gets to talk to absolute experts in their fields.

[@danostrow]

I love that the Smithsonian has an XKCD Up Goer Five poster, that makes me happy.

[@just10NU]

We are very lucky Adam has his own channel. He's so cool!

[@waterup380]

did you watch the other video he had to buy out the other guy to own this channel

[@ChickenWire]

@@waterup380 was the other guy jamie? or was it Will and Norm

[@waterup380]

He never said but we all know it was Jamie

[@thegamingeconomist3831]

Oh yes, more of this, please! These two lovely ladies are just phenomenal and have so much to share in fascinating stories, skills and knowledge. Great, great communicators. It's telling that Adam says so little in this video - he doesn't have to!

[@TotallyGlitch]

I love the coloring on this suit. This conversation is so rich in technical detail and history. Will watch again with more coffee, a biscuit and a notepad.

[@waynewilliams8554]

Adam, I was working with a Mechanical Engineer in the 70s that got laid off when the Apollo 1 disaster happened. He was employed by the company making suits from Mercury through Apollo. He told me the mechanical joints built for Gus Grissom were larger on his left arm than his right because it was that much more dominate. Food for thought mate!!

[@TJRohyans]

Still on my bucket list. My only wish is that I could a more personal, behind the scenes visit like you're able to get. As a USAF Veteran (former B-52H and B-2A Crew Chief) and life-long aviation nut, there are so many things I want to see. Thank you for sharing these visits with us.

[@jonmoore1614]

This conversation is amazing. All three of these people have their own experience with working with engineering materials or otherwise complicated materials. Fascinating stuff.

[@PanCakesAreFat]

Any time Adam is looking at a spacesuit, he's like a kid looking at the biggest piece of candy in a candy shop. Love it.

[@samsignorelli]

You can see just hoe much he wants to lay his hands on it!

[@cj719521]

This exact group of people every month. I love this!

[@dmprdctns]

Fantastic stuff...! As usual... Although.... I can't believe she actually called him, the "Pillsbury Dough-person..." Unbelievable...

[@mikejetzer4155]

No, the color of the neck ring was not determined by its role in the program ("the blue was for training; the red would have been for flight"). Rather, it was the design of the vent port (the curved, red rubber opening at the back of the neck, visible around 11:44) which fed oxygen through the helmet's vent pad and over the astronaut's face. Blue neck rings on the suits (which matched the blue neck rings on the helmets) had the original design and red neck rings on the suits/helmets had the new design. The Apollo 7 through Apollo 10 crews flew with the blue neck ring but subsequent crews flew with the red ring. It's likely that older suits were later reused for training (some suits which were flown on missions and even worn on the moon were "recycled" into training suits) and so blue neck rings may have become known as "training" equipment, but that was not the original meaning of the colors.

[@patrickday4206]

It's amazing how they were able to even move around at all like they did!! Lol the finger dexterity I always thought must have been a pain in the butt!

[@DeputatKaktus]

A little fun fact, taken from Chris Hadfields memoires: The rubber bands they tie the Sokhol suits close with are the same type that is used for closing up the trash bags over there.

[@AndreasA.S.]

is potato?

[@lunhil12]

I wish more people could appreciate the benefits of the material science and research that comes from the world's space programs. It's really gigantic in it's scope.

[@cianjamesmcguire8445]

Am I the only one that wants a Cady and Adam stand alone show? She asks such good questions and matches Adam’s nerdiness 😂

[@geojoe602]

A+ episode. Best conversation so far.

[@michaelbevan3285]

absolutely fascinating! I could listen to them talk about this artifact all day.

[@kmolnardaniel]

What I really like about Adam, that he is such a true fanboy, he can make two space suit conversation woman feel like superstars.

[@DecanFrost]

"i thought NASA finally discovered color" 😂 😂

[@rongray8934]

What a great video. Thank you all at the museum for all your care and time you put into your passion.

[@avejst]

Impressive build and sense of details

[@howHumam]

These videos with NASA people are so precious. It's amazing to get a passing glimpse of such brilliant minds just chat about subjects in such a casually understandable way. I've built a chainmail shirt and discovered some very basic facts about fitting something to a human body. I can't imagine building a balloon space ship small enough for a person, but that does sound fun now that I read it...

[@Awesomepotamus]

Cady Coleman is such an inspiring person.

[@h7opolo]

some people should live forever, when they've proved to be an invalueable asset.

[@zyxwvut4740]

Adam Savage is scheduled to become the first 1,000 year old man.

[@christalbert722]

I wish there were some way for me to up-check this a dozen times- 1 isn't enough! :) Having both Adams enthusiasm and built-it knowledge plusCady's personal hands-on experience and engineering knowledge is just fantastic! It's been years since I viited the NASM, I've got to go again :)

[@WizardKingCorey]

Excellent design and description and talk. Want more of this applied science and engineering.

[@Jezee213]

This suit is beautiful, what a work of art.

[@lorawaring883]

aspects from all three of you made a really interesting episode.

[@mattsitsback]

she is so knowledgable and passionate about her job! which makes sense becasue she has like the coolest job ever haha.

[@WowCoolHorse]

The discussion on spacesuit fitting was even more interesting than the actual suit!!

[@O2CP]

5:44 I love that you can see the XKCD rocket blueprint of the thing explainer pinned on the wall behind them :D

[@kealke]

3 days and nobody commented on the giant enterprise model in the background on the right?

[@olsonspeed]

Amazing piece of 1960's design and fabrication. Interesting conversation on the details of constructing and wearing a personal spaceship.

[@michaelmcguire7687]

Loving the Apollo content

[@HarpoonSkittles]

Cool video, I have not heard of you since mythbusters glad to see your doing good.

[@shouldent]

At first I thought it was a nice new suit... then I realized it was 50 years old!

[@theejectionsite1038]

Just found in my collection a bunch of photos of testing the HAFO suit from ILC from 1977 and it shows several great photos of the restraints and the way the suit inflates to shape for sitting. Very cool stuff, I love pressure suits!

[@jphellify]

Thank u for pulling the curtain back (beta cloth). What about long term lunar dust problem for new suits? joints, abrasiveness

[@Miller190589]

What a nice story... I love space suits. Im a design engineer but only work with stiff mateials and I find it so unbelivebly crazy when I see this flexible thing that needs to hold up to so many challanges and because it should fit a lot of differnet sized people it basicly has to go true metamorphosis to fit someone else. As said, you can not just go into your CAD Model and size down or up your components. Fittings, bearings and sawing seams only come in one size for the suit and only the fabric can basicly change. It's so many fields coming together to make those work.

[@chriss6910]

Fantastic video with three amazing people!

[@Robslondon]

I adore this channel 😊

[@wrightmf]

Interesting they have spacesuit engineers coming to Smithsonian to examine how these suits are designed and built, but then there were those ILC engineers that started from scratch (well they had Mercury, Gemini, U2 suits) but had to come up with something you can actually walk on the moon. Previous space walks was no walking.

[@coreymonday1375]

The way Adam talks with his hands it's a miracle he hasn't hit things pretty hard I mean he comes within an inch of hitting the suit

[@Shatterpath]

I can't even say how wonderful it is to me to see these WOMEN experts with the openness to let their genius free without being talked over or cut off! Conservator Young in particular has the energy of perhaps having that happen too often and she's a little giddy to be given such freedom. It makes me giddy too.

[@davidgold5961]

There is a really great paperback book, published by the MIT Press, and it explains that the main company that developed the spacesuits was Playtex, the bra company. I’m not making this up. Their skill set for adapting to changing body shapes and movement and conforming to those things worked out really well in the Apollo space program.

[@andrewdenzov3303]

Just amazing how many resources were used to create a suit.

[@codemonkey2k5]

Cady is quite a character.

[@patrickday4206]

This lady and Adam talked before hand and were like wouldn't it be funny if we almost touched the suit a bunch of times!!!!! Lol

[@standurround589]

This guy just gets it. Thanks Adam

[@dragonskunkstudio7582]

7:35 "Pillsbury dough person." It's a laugh and cringe moment at the same time.

[@patrickday4206]

Gozer the destroyer now goes by they or them!!! Lol but that was stay puff but close enough!

[@mudman6156]

Her complaints about the suits not being fitted properly for those of us that are small is a valid concern and one that NASA really needs to pay more attention to. Because they get it wrong each and every single time. This is true with other aspects in life as well. It’s mostly because these items are designed and made by people who tend to be considerably larger, and they have a lack of understanding what it’s like to be a smaller person. I have the same issue when trying to purchase scuba diving equipment, especially wet and drysuits. It can get to be extremely frustrating to say the least.

[@hardcoreep]

Just love this stuff!

[@seldoon_nemar]

Not only did the air force invest a TON of money into finding the average pilot, they build a plane around those measurements. And after pilots were crashing, they did an intensive review and realized not one pilot met the average dimensions. it was like 4 in 10 measurements were "average"

[@SaturnCanuck]

That was amazing. Now bear with me. When I first saw the suit, the first thing that came t mind was Major Matt Mason. One of the space suits in the line was this colour blue, and I'm sure Matel saw photos of this and used this as the basis.

[@damientonkin]

I recommend the book Lunar Outfitters if you're interested in the development of the Apollo suits.

[@damientonkin]

If I remember correctly Hamilton Standard did the life support system, David Clark did the fittings (via their subsidiary Air Lock) and ILC Dover built the suit. So not exactly as described in the video but close enough. Hamilton actually won the initial award and used ILC as a subcontractor because their suit was better but there were a lot of politics and NASA eventually had to say "if you kids don't stop fighting and work together I'll turn this government contract around so fast!"

[@damientonkin]

To answer Adams question there are blue neck rings and red neck rings which are slightly different standards. Please don't take any of my comments as gospel. I have read up on this in the past but I might be misremembering any number of things.

[@damientonkin]

Also my sources could be wrong, that's always a possibility.

[@marktadlock5428]

It is so cool, I hope some day to be able to visit the Museum

[@PowerScissor]

The museum woman has never wanted 2 extra pairs of gloves so bad in her life!

[@Czechbound]

The cost of these things would probably boggle the mind. To think that at the same time as these were being developed, the pilot seat of Concorde was being developed. It cost - in 1960 Sterling Pounds - 80,000,000 pounds to develop. Just the pilot's seat ( not the co-pilot seat ). At the time, a family home cost 3,000 UK pounds. If inflation had kept pace with house prices, it would be the equivalent to 7,600,000,000 today. That's how expensive development of new aero / space stuff costs

[@blackops84321]

Adam, I have always loved your videos. I hope you keep on making them as long as you can. The one day builds have given me so many ideas. Thank you for doing what you do. 👍

[@E-s.thoughts]

Cady Coleman, 3 space missions, all together 180 days in space and still a modest lovely lady. "A spacesuit is actually a spacecraft in human form", what a nice comparison she makes there.

[@martinschulz9381]

Good video. I didn't know any of the details, but I always knew that there was a lot of engineering involved in making them. They have been trying to figure out ways to prevent wear on the suits because of the very abrasive lunar dust.

[@thedoctor755]

Yay!!! A space suit video :)

[@pirobot668beta]

Hey, Adam! When are you gonna look at the AX-2 'hard-suit', or do I have to finish my replica without visual reference? US Patent 3,405,406 only takes me so far...

[@marklamphier8836]

This is a question and not a gotcha, I promise: Lisa mentions that blue neck rings indicated training suits and red for flight. Launch day photos and video suggest that wasn't strictly true, and more immediately, Frank Borman's Apollo 8 flight suit in Chicago has a blue neck ring. Was there an intention to categorize the suits this way, but exceptions made for incidental reasons?

[@rocketsocks]

That whole "people don't complain they just make it work" is a huge problem in many fields because it means things don't get better. Sometimes it becomes toxic as well where folks will imagine the terribleness as a rite of passage that everyone has to pass through. You see both aspects of that all the time in the tech industry.

[@rocketpunchgo1]

"Pilsbury DoughPerson." 7:40 Interesting.

[@Codex_of_Wisdom]

WAIT is that the XKCD simple words blueprint on the wall behind them? That's amazing.

[@greatlakesuperiordeepviewsvide]

So cool.

[@davidshi451]

Is that an XKCD "Up-goer Five" poster on the left? :D

[@CBDuRietz]

It sure seems so.

[@HaileISela]

i wish there'd be more triangulated meshes in these suits. something like a kagome weave, triagonally woven fabric would be the obvious choice for structurally sound suits that allow for dynamic movement. alan, other than in a decorative manner or as in the kikko plate armor of the samurais, there seems very little of that out there. why not grow a "geodesic dome" that fits a humanimal?

[@AndreasA.S.]

install cameras to be able to compare the suit with each hour, you will be able to playback the shot as a vid for fast checks of changes or any shifting.

[@nathkrupa3463]

Nice suite

[@travishancock9120]

It is amazing to see how Science Fiction ran away with the spacesuit idea, with Space Marines, jetpacks, and armored troopers. In a lot of ways the real thing is so much cooler.

[@AndreasA.S.]

there are some trials and testing the Michelin man suits with wide range of motion. just too bulky.

[@patrickday4206]

@@AndreasA.S. they were white and once inflated made you look like the stay puff marshmallow man!! 😆 🤣 😂

[@Nightsd01]

One thing that was true in the Apollo days is, they didn’t need to design the space suit to accommodate everyone. Too tall? You’re out. Too short? You’re out. It wasn’t a racial or gender thing - they wanted to get to the moon and they wanted to do it fast. And they did it. It’s interesting that one astronaut lost over 10lbs of body weight due to sweat in their space suit on an EVA. Space honestly isn’t mean for everyone at least not right now. We can’t expect space suits to be designed for every body form, but modern tech definitely lets us get closer to that (3D printing and scanning)

[@MrChief101]

Remarkable. Lovely Conservator (--ess?).

[@brentsawyer2006]

There should be a specific audio tour done by Lisa to get a more behind the scenes view of things without going behind the scenes

[@mudman6156]

I would absolutely love to have one of these space suits, obviously sized for a perfect fit, including the boots and gloves. Oh…and in fully operational condition so all it would need is for the oxygen supply and CO2 removal systems to be recharged. Wearing one of these would be a thrilling experience and of itself. When and where can I order my own? I want just one slight modification…change out the older rubber components to modern synthetic rubber materials so that they last far longer than just 6 months. Along with it I would likewise want the Apollo bubble helmet, as that helmet wasn’t only seriously cool, but it allowed the astronaut to see everything around him without having to turn his entire body to see things to the side, or be forced to bend in order to see his feet. And having the protective outer garment layer is an absolute must, as is a perfectly sized inner cooling/heating garment for maintaining the right body temperature. The closest thing you can buy to your own space suit here on Earth is a scuba diving dry suit. And if you have a commercial diving helmet attached to a rebreather system, you’re probably about as close to having a real spacesuit as possible. Only at far less cost. And it won’t protect you from micrometeorites or space radiation. But it will keep the air in CO2 under control, as the technology of the rebreather is quite similar to that of the spacesuit’s backpack (minus the heating/cooling loop) for the inner temperature regulating under garment that the astronaut wears under the space suit. In the drysuit, the diver typically wears drysuit undergarments, which are heavily insulated underwear so the diver stays warm. The problem is that the diver will often start sweating profusely, and even though he’s wearing a drysuit, he’s more apt to be soaking wet when he takes it off). I know. I’m a scuba diver and I have a dry suit.

[@darrenhemingway7121]

ESA has took on a one legged astronaut - interesting what modifications the suits could use to accommodate this.

[@nathkrupa3463]

Nice Video Sir

[@mrennick]

I wonder if that suit was developed before or after Apollo 1. If it was before or concurrent it may have been sized for Gus.

[@vonirkinshtine]

Anybody else notice the Up Goer Five poster in the background?

[@zombierepublican]

Snake? Snake!? SNAAAAAAAAAAKE!

[@E.L.M685]

I really want to see Adam build a legit spacesuit

[@Ktcsr17]

I usually feel smart. I would have nothing to add to this conversation 😂😂😂😂

[@aserta]

Next time, give Adam and friends little pointer hands on sticks. Lisa's life got shaved a few hours there every time fingers came in 'danger close'. :))

[@garyowen9044]

“Pillsbury Dough Person”

[@55bearclaw]

What’s with not being able to ventilate the suit for display? It has air ports so why not just put in a wire frame inside and use the existing ports maximum ventilation for display?

[@blackdra2000]

No Adam, tiu can't take the suit home with you. No I know you have a place for it but like Indian Jones said "it belongs in a museum "

[@mattduncil]

Could a form of fine chain mail be used as a way of reducing damage from lunar dust

[@danyvictory421]

Pillsbury dough Person ?!!!

[@mikebelanger4165]

Not likely to ever happen (with me), but I would love to get permission to don a full suit and undergo some NBL training!

[@sebastienlabbe4647]

Ok, hear me out, what if they encased all the suits in two-ton resin bricks. If it works for a hotdog it should work for a suit right?

[@teej008]

work how?

[@shanenway3684]

Is the Enterprise in the background

[@svtbass]

I find it hard to believe she ever walked on a Nordic Trak