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  Apollo astronauts' Portable Oxygen Ventilators

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Author Topic:   Apollo astronauts' Portable Oxygen Ventilators
David C
Member

Posts: 1014
From: Lausanne
Registered: Apr 2012

posted 09-25-2014 05:31 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for David C     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I'm trying to find out some more information on the Portable Oxygen Ventilators (POV) that the crew used between leaving the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building (MSOB) and spacecraft ingress.

I get the impression that they circulated gas, supplied oxygen, scrubbed CO2 and possibly had a cooling capability. There appear to have been several types.

Does anyone have a functional or structural diagram of a generic POV?

DG27
Member

Posts: 173
From: USA
Registered: Nov 2010

posted 09-26-2014 01:56 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for DG27   Click Here to Email DG27     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The functions you mentioned are essentially those of a PLSS. The ventilators, while doing similar functions, were not that sophisicated.

The ventilators I am familar with are open loop blow-down systems. Liquid oxygen from a storage dewar flows through a heat exchanger where it is vaporized and heated and the cool gas flows to the suit to provide ventilation and cooling. Since the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo suits do not have pressure controllers on the suit the return hose went to a pressure controller in the ventilator. Open loop suits like the Shuttle ACES suit (and most high altitude suits) have the controller on the suit, so ventilators for those suits only have one hose going to the suit and the exhaust gas exits thru the controller on the suit. High altitude suits with helmets that have a separate oxygen inlet have another small hose from the ventilator to supply the helmet. All the ventilators I am familiar with are self powering in that the gas flow comes from the boiling off of the liqid oxygen. So they have no electical parts.

Hope this helps.

David C
Member

Posts: 1014
From: Lausanne
Registered: Apr 2012

posted 09-26-2014 02:42 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for David C     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thanks, didn't realise they were so simple. I guess that since they were open loop they could get away without CO2 scrubbing.

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