Why do astronauts wear white shirts when returning?

Astronaut's clothes must be white, but when they return to Earth they wear orange, what's special from this?

Why must astronaut clothes be white?

Neil Armstrong, Ed White, and all the US astronauts currently on the ISS space have one thing in common, their white astronaut suit.

Not just Americans, but now the aerospace agencies of other countries like Russia and China too. All are white, dotted with a few decorative details but absolutely no other colors.

But why white? Actually, previously, NASA's travel items did not carry this color. In the Mercury Project - the first manned mission - the astronauts' outfit is silver. Later for a vital reason, white was applied.

Astronauts wear white clothes to reflect cosmic radiation effectively.

White is the most efficient color for cosmic radiation

On Earth, we have the atmosphere as a shield, with the ability to block 77% of the radiation coming from the Sun. But beyond the atmosphere, this shield is no longer available, meaning that astronauts face direct problems such as sunburn, blistering, and even cancer at the cellular level.

To solve this problem, astronaut suits are designed in white to reflect radiation from the Sun.

According to Cathleen Lewis - an expert from the National Aeronautics and Space Museum (USA) - white is the perfect color to protect the astronauts' safety. This is similar to when you paint white walls, the room will be cooler than painting dark colors. Because light colors absorb less heat.

On the way back to Earth, it has to change to another color

Astronaut's luggage is more than just a white suit. When returning from space, they will have to switch to similar clothes but bring bright orange.

This is because the color will stand out against the blue background of the ocean and the sky, which is great for attracting attention. In the event of an error that forced astronauts to abandon the ship, they will be more easily saved.

However, time also makes things change. Science now has many other solutions to determine the location of an astronaut in need of rescue, such as GPS. So NASA and other aerospace agencies can unleash creative color for the astronaut suits to wear when returning.

In addition, some argue that the current suits will have to improve a lot to meet the requirements for the upcoming trip to Mars. The trip takes at least 3 years, so maybe the color of the traveling suits will help.

How much does NASA's space suit cost?

Jonathan Miller, a NASA engineer working at Johnson Space Center, said that space suits are not commercially available, so they cannot be priced in the usual way but calculated right from the research and testing process to make a standard version before it can be produced more copies.

Typically, NASA's new space protection research and design projects cost hundreds of millions of dollars, for example, on June 11, 2008, NASA signed a contract to design protective gear. Space Apartment is worth 758 million USD with Oceaneering International.

It is the cost to create prototypes, and for the mass production version (the copy version of the original version), their price is not cheap.

For example, NASA's first space suit, Navy Mark IV, used for the Mercury project, costing about $ 2 million at the time. Meanwhile, the common space protection suit is the EMU North Dakota model, which costs about $ 12 million each.

How do astronauts wash clothes on a space station?

Due to the lack of washing machines and scarce water, astronauts had to remove old clothes by burning in the atmosphere.