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  Mercury - Gemini - Apollo
  ASMU propulsion unit use outside of Skylab

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Author Topic:   ASMU propulsion unit use outside of Skylab
carmelo
Member

Posts: 1051
From: Messina, Sicilia, Italia
Registered: Jun 2004

posted 05-07-2014 08:13 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for carmelo   Click Here to Email carmelo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Could the Automatically Stabilized Maneuvering Unit, or ASMU (an early MMU) be used from the astronauts outside of the Skylab in a EVA?

Or the structure of Apollo telescope and the umbilical cord (but I remember that the Gemini AMU could be used in an umbilical EVA) prevented the use out of the station?

Dwight
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Posts: 577
From: Germany
Registered: Dec 2003

posted 05-08-2014 07:32 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Dwight   Click Here to Email Dwight     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I am fairly certain that the test protocols would have prohibited the use of it outside the OWS. From a practical standpoint, I don't see why it couldn't have been functional, given that fully EVA-suited tests were made filmed and televised inside the space station, as detailed in Live TV From Orbit.

To do so, however, given that it was not flight approved would have been a risk that I don't think NASA would have been willing to take.

Jim Behling
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Posts: 1488
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: Mar 2010

posted 05-08-2014 09:06 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jim Behling   Click Here to Email Jim Behling     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
When the MMU was tested and/or used on the shuttle program, the orbiter always had the capability to go rescue the astronaut.

Headshot
Member

Posts: 891
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 05-08-2014 09:47 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Headshot   Click Here to Email Headshot     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This is a silly question, but would a fully-suited astronaut wearing an AMU fit through the airlock hatch? That modified Gemini hatch was not very wide.

carmelo
Member

Posts: 1051
From: Messina, Sicilia, Italia
Registered: Jun 2004

posted 05-08-2014 01:22 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for carmelo   Click Here to Email carmelo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Good point!

So if they wanted use the ASMU in EVA, had stored outside the Skylab, in a safe compartment (on the back of the station, like the AMU in Gemini capsule)?

All times are CT (US)

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