Back in May I experienced a mind altering event
from the inside out. Most people might be familiar with TedX or Ted talks but
how many people get to be up on that stage? I can now say that I have. I was a
part of the presentation with the group Pacific Spaceflight. Our project leader,
Dr.Cameron Smith was the main presenter, the guy who had to do all the talking.
I however had to walk onstage in a spacesuit, that's right I said spacesuit.
You see Pacific Spaceflight is a project focused on suborbital flight and the
technology necessary to perform such flights, a key piece of this is a
pressured garment or spacesuit. This is where I come in, I work alongside Dr
Smith in suit design and manufacturing and on May 30th 2015, on that brightly
lit TedX stage, Pacific Spaceflight was unveiling its newest suit Zaphod I,
with me inside.The road up to TedX was a blur, we had known
sense August of 2014, maybe even before, that we wanted to make a lighter suit.
Our original suit, the Mark I had been through many modifications, test and was
creeping up on 5 years of wear and tear so a new suit was a must. We knew we
wanted it to be as light weight as possible and so the designing began. We
started in mid-January of 2015. I was excited, this was my first time actually helping
to design and make a suit sense I only joined the group in 2013. My only
experience with suit design and manufacture up to this point had been with the
coolant garments, repairs and the convoluted joints, Dr. Smith had designed and
built the Mark I before I had even joined the group.
Next came the new gloves
and coolant garment. I personally found learning how to make the gloves quite
challenging but they are a very important part of the suit and I'm glade to
hold that knowledge now.
Dr. Smith then started working on the helmet while I measured the
pressure restraint garment, (PRG), of the Mark IV suit. Once Dr. Smith checked
the measurements we started making the PRG for the Zaphod
With the suit complete, it was then tested and
tested and tested. Now it was time to show the world.The day of TedX was
amazing, you would be surprised to see how much time goes into a 15 min
presentation but there I was suited up and waiting by the side of the stage.
The audience was huge, lucky for me, I could not hear anything inside the suit
and it really helped with nerves. To the left of me was the original suit the
MarkIV, inhabited by one of Pacific Spaceflight techs Ben Wilson. He was called
on stage first and then it was me. Walking out on stage was weird, again I
could not hear, but I could not stop smiling. I kept thinking, I did this, my
life is being supported by a spacesuit that I helped make and that just made me
smile. I waved to the audience and within a min or two our time was up and we
walked of stage.
