The spacesuit diaries
The team
Kathy Sykes's diary about the challenge for the Spacesuit programme, from the BBC/OU series Rough Science 4
Day Three
We give up all ideas of a fridge! It's a cool box. We have been able to create low pressures, which are good for insulating, like the way a thermos flask uses a vacuum to keep drinks hot or cold. Our attempts to actually reduce the temperature were pathetic, so we’ll go for an insulating cool box instead and try find other ways of getting cool water. So I wrap up water bottles in material, tie them to the top of the vehicle, water them down and we swoop off to Death Valley. We have to stop on the way to keep the material wet - it just dries out so fast in the heat and wind.
It worked, though - a load better than our attempts at fridges! Ellen, dressed like one of the sperm in Woody Allen's "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex" film, heaving the trolley and 'cool box' across the jagged surface of Death Valley, was almost too funny to bear.
We all get so tense and excited at the ends of the shows. We only had one attempt, and everything had to work first time:
* the pump Jonathan and Ellen made had to pump
* the cooled water had to get used quickly and Mike's chemical reaction had to work
* the seals had to hold and the pump work for the fridge to act as a cool box
The wheels of the trolley were the thing that gave, and Ellen just kept pulling that trolley. It was hysterical, we were weeping with laughter. It was probably the best moment of the series for me (which is funny, given the failure of the fridge).
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Content last updated: 18/07/2006
