> By December, 2013, NASA had determined the leak to have been caused by a design flaw in the Portable Life Support System liquid coolant. The designers failed to take into account the physics of water in zero-g, which unintentionally allowed coolant water to mix with the air supply.
They did not take into account that a space suit will primarily be used in… space. wat?!?
>> The designers failed to take into account the physics of water in zero-g, which unintentionally allowed coolant water to mix with the air supply.
> They did not take into account that a space suit will primarily be used in… space. wat?!?
That's not entirely fair. It's easy enough to know that something will be used in particular circumstances, but not to realise all of the consequences. Water behaves very, very weirdly in microgravity as compared with here on Earth, and unless you, personally, have experienced it and experimented with it, it's very, very easy not to notice something, or to expect something other than what actually happens.
> By December, 2013, NASA had determined the leak to have been caused by a design flaw in the Portable Life Support System liquid coolant. The designers failed to take into account the physics of water in zero-g, which unintentionally allowed coolant water to mix with the air supply.
They did not take into account that a space suit will primarily be used in… space. wat?!?