At what point can an astronaut take off their helmet and why do they need to wear one for take off? (Asked by an actual 5 year old)
In: Physics
Think of the ship as being a protective bubble. It is filled with air and lots of equipment to keep the astronauts alive. If anything damages the spaceship, there is a risk that the astronauts could be injured or worse.
Like most bubbles, they can be damaged quite easily. The most risky times are during take-off because it is being shaken around by the rocket engines, during docking because it is bumping into another spaceship and during landing because it is being violently shaken around again and it gets very hot.
At those times the astronauts put on a space suit. The space suit is each astronaut’s own personal protective bubble; a protective bubble within a protective bubble!
Once they have completed take- off, docking or landing they check to see if there was any damage to the space ship and if everything is OK, they can remove their suits.
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