 |
| Gene Cernan, Apollo 17 commander. Source: NASA |
More info: https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a17/AS17Tech2.pdf
Astronaut Gene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17, commented about dressing ("donning") and undressing ("doffing") in the confined space of the Lunar Module. But first, a vocabulary lesson.
LCG is a "Liquid Cooled Garment." This was worn under the big moon suit. It had small tubes sewn in to circulate water and keep the astronauts cool.
CWG is a "Constant Wear Garment" like long-johns.
* * * * *
"When we doffed the suit, we went into a drying mode as the checklist suggests prior to the sleep period. I'm really glad we did because our suits stayed relatively fresh and clean on the inside.
We doffed our LCGs every day and slept in CWGs rather than the LCG. And I'm glad we did that because it was much more comfortable.
We made it a buddy system in the entire donning and prep when it came to the suit operations, except for putting on the gloves. We found it easier to put them on in parallel and get them locked and verified locked.
We actually, each individually in almost all cases, put our own glove dust covers and ring dust covers on. Maybe we had to help each other once in a while.
And contrary to some of our initial desires, we decided to go ahead and put those dust covers on for every EVA. After the first EVA, we found out what the dust problem really was."
[Excerpt from "Apollo 17 Technical Debrief, Manned Spacecraft Center Document MSC-07631" dated 4 January 1973.]
