Design Culture in Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo by Nicholas De Monchaux - Book Report/Review Example

Introduction to Design Culture The book d “Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo”, by Nicholas De Monchaux describes about the spacesuit and bout the personalities Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin who were the first to land on the surface of lunar in the year1969. Monchaux in the book represents the design of the particular spacesuit, which was used by Armstrong and Aldrin and was made up of Playtex. The main argument of the book, is regarding the components and aspects of the spacesuits, its importance and about “Playtex”1. Playtex is a- twenty-one layers spacesuit, which was, wore by the Nail Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin at their first land to lunar surface. The significance of the same is evaluated in the book to realize the significance of the suits and its effectiveness. Moreover, the author in the book describes about the engineering expertise and also about the triumph of elegant softness over the hardness of engineering. Furthermore, with regard to spacesuits it can be stated that in the 19th century was called the era of “Apollo”, in that era spacesuits were harder than 20th century spacesuits. The author had been mentioned about this kind of technicality in the entire book and provided other more valuable information about twenty-one layer spacesuit. The author intends to reflect about the technical advancement, which leads to the creation of better effective spacesuits than previous. The entire book demonstrates about the unexpected victory due to the use of Playtex and twenty-one layer spacesuits and its journey to lunar surface. It is found that military people used “Playtex” which was softer than the NASA engineers spacesuits because of its effective layering. The author argues about the effectiveness of Playtex because of its softness, appropriate design and stitching, which is different from the prior used armor suits by the military. The author states that NASA engineers used hard coded spacesuit, which was more traditional than Military Spacesuits. Therefore, the concept of twenty-one layer spacesuit in twenty-one chapter is expressed to realize the benefit of the spacesuits by Playtex. Various facts are described by the author in the entire book about the designing of the spacesuits and its relevance. In the stated book, different kinds of spacesuits and how the spacesuits are designed in the current technological era and how it is different from the past when spacesuits have been well crafted. The book offers an objective lesson about the previous design and the present design of the spacesuit. In this context, it can be stated as per the knowledge gained from the book that hand created space suit is more valuable than the technology used crafted space suits. Fabricated complexity makes the space suits more redundant and independent2. Contextually, in the Apollo era, astronauts used twenty-one layered hard spacesuits, to make it more comfortable as well as simpler. “Playtex” maker of bras and girdles had changed the spacesuits known design and created new type of comfortable spacesuits. The author had described about the assemblage of the twenty-one layer and the Playtex, and its complexities, strategies, along with the military and industrial designed spacesuits according to the nuclear missile. According to the NASA nuclear missile, Playtex makes the spacesuits that are accustomed with human body to increase the level of comfort but with strong integration. The author described about the combination of natural and technological aspects, which makes the spacesuit mechanism redundant as well as independent for the astronauts and the NASA engineers3. As per the author, this twenty-one layer spacesuit is the combination of chemical and physical layer, which were essentially distinct due to natural and manmade complexity. At the end of the book author wrote about the new designs of the spacesuits, which helps the human body to survive in the space in a more convenient way and with the help of new technology space suit management become easier for the makers4. Nicholas de Monchaux in the book had beautifully described the combination of the clothing and design of the spacesuit. He elaborated the story of the Playtex, who were manufacturer of women’s undergarments, but latter came up with armor like suit design and changed the spacesuit design history for better effectiveness. The author jotted the main points about the twenty-one layer spacesuit history, and side by side narrated about the eighteenth century androids, Christian Dior’s new look, NASA Missile control techniques, new look of defense planning, flights and suits and Cyborg combination of science and natural techniques. The book also imparts knowledge about the new techniques and strategies, which were created by the engineers of NASA. From the above analysis, it is found that this book is a collection of various techniques, which had been discovered by the NASA scientists to make the space journey more safe and secure. Moreover, the author not only provides information but also criticized the traditional and modern architecture of the space suits and the space management techniques. Therefore, in this context, the launch of Sputnik 1 was a new kind of achievement. As per ‘flight suit to Space suit’ one of the layers from the book, it was observed that for the enhancement of Sputnik 1 the US government borrowed missiles and other management systems from the military. To win the battle in the space and secure the life of human being new kind of techniques were being implemented and used, as per ‘the Man in Space’ layer5. Subsequently, in the JFK head one of the layer, the author wrote about the images that addressed about the John F. Kennedy pivotal decision to fund the NASA’s lunar effort. Another, important layer is Cyborg, which helps in controlling and balancing the human weight in the space. Additionally, the author discussed about the space suits, space land and other important facts about the Space as well as produced images through which the readers can visualize the entire scenario. For instance, in the book an image is provided, which shows that when the astronauts landed in the lunar surface how it would be looked. In this context, NASA had arranged a training session for the astronauts, who wanted to travel to the space. This training provided them with a real expose about the landing in the lunar surface, and how to survive in the space. All these were being possible due to the technological interventions and the virtual world of space science. In the ‘Simulation’ layer author wrote about the experience of the future astronauts6. Moreover, technological experiment of spacesuits also encouraged the NASA engineers to make the spacesuits more comfortable and a competition session started between the military-industrial and Playtex suits, and after a three week of experiment it was observed and proved that Playtex suits are not only comfortable but it also preserves and safeguard the human being in the lunar surface. This information was provided by the in the layer of “The Moon Suit plays Football”7. In the stated book, the author also emphasized about how, the handmade space suits find difficulties at the time of production. Similarly, military-industrial manufactured had faced complications at different stages of the production. Military-industrial and Playtex both the manufacturers main operation is to make hard suit for the upcoming lunar missions, but it failed to meet the standards of the previous suits. However, new era comes with new medium and sources like lunar landing, which became a media event for the broadcast medium, with the help of the broadcasting satellite landing on the lunar surface had created a new touchstone for the modern broadcasters. In the new era spacesuits designs provide important clues for the culture as well as it develops new trend among the space suits. To control the space activity, a new type of system have been designed by the researcher, which helps to control the mission control room and is used for steady watch on the space ship and make communication between the astronauts and the officials of the NASA effective8. Therefore, it can be ascertained that in this book the author had also defined about the difficulties faced by the astronauts in the space. Soft and light spacesuit created problem to survive in the space for that reason NASA demanded hard suits, which easily settled in the space, and new system engineering had come in the lessons of Apollo9. Different sort of rules and regulation created pressure regarding the travel to space. The entire journey through the book of the spacesuit was quite interesting as well as complicated, but the authors view and criticism about the spacesuit and its technicalities make the points impressive as well as distinctive from the other. Work Cited Monchaux, Nicholas. De. Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo. United States: MIT Press, 2011. Print. Read More