+ 1970 News Releases (7.6 Mb PDF file) - NASA

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
MANNEDSPACECRAF1
Houston
,DI'OXJL_
483-5111 December 7, 1970
MSC 70-125
S
HOL_TON_ TEXAS--Sha_ing a tank of compressed air on the way back to
the surface is a standard emergency procedure among Scuba divers. The
mouthpiece is passed back sad forth between the divers who share the air
remaining in a good air tar k. It's called_ logically, the "buddy system."
Now the buddy system approach has been adapted to moonwalks through
the use of connecting line_ that could feed cooling water from an astronaut's
backpack life support system to the space suit worn by his companion. The
connections would give men enough time to return to their moon landing
craft if the water cooling system of one of the backpacks failed.
Called the Buddy Secondary Life Support System (BSLSS), the lifesustaining
pair of flexible hoses will be provided for the first time in
Apollo 14 the third United States manned lunar landing mission, scheduled
for launch by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on January
31_ 1971.
The connecting hoses _ill be used in the second and longest of the
two moonwalks of the mission. They will be carried_ readily accessible in
an emergency, on the two-wheeled cart that the astronauts will pull across
the lunar surface to transport their tools and rock samples.
During moon walks or other operations in the hard vacuum of space_
the PLSS supplies the astronauts with breathing and suit-pressurizing oxygen
-more-