Effectiveness of NASA 1032 and 1035 and Air Force 1030 1034 Suits in Protection against Cold Water Hypothermia.

摘要

Our lab examined the relative cold exposure protection afforded by two sets of clothing ensembles. One set consisted of National Aeronautics and Space Administration suits (NASA1032 and NASA1035) and the other consisted of Air Force suits (AF1030 and AF1034). Eight healthy male subjects wearing these ensembles were exposed on four separate occasions to cold water (Twater - 4.4 deg C) in an environmentally controlled chamber with cold ambient air temperature (Tair - 5.6 deg C). Each subject tested either a NASA or an Air Force set of clothing ensembles for the ability to keep body core temperature (Tre) above 35 deg C (onset of hypothermia) in both head-out immersion and enclosed within a raft. Subjects in the NASA suits were given up to 6 hours for the immersion trials and 24 hours for the raft trials, although none of the subjects in either suit were able to endure the entire duration of the experiments due to a variety of reasons. The NASA 1032 appeared to perform better than the NASA1035 in both immersion and raft trials an none of the NASA1032 subjects' Tre fell to 35 deg C and the mean change in Tre (delta Tre) was somewhat smaller in the NASA1032 (p<0.06). Both NASA1032 and NASA1035 subjects showed comparable mean exposure duration times. Hypothermia, Space Shuttle, Anti-Exposure Protection, Pressure Suit.