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   Winchell Chung ⚛🚀 (nyrath@spacey.space)'s status on Monday, 30-Dec-2024 00:45:50 JST Winchell Chung ⚛🚀

   https://phys.org/news/2024-12-astronauts-unique-visual-lunar-south.html

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     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Monday, 30-Dec-2024 00:45:47 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Isaac Ji Kuo

     @isaackuo @nyrath That maximum elevation for the sun is similar to where I live (Scotland) in midwinter. It's a royal pain in the eyeball even with an atmosphere to attenuate it. I suspect a tech solution is desirable: gaze-tracking camera inside helmet plus an occlusive block to get between eyeballs and line-of-sight on the sun, perhaps? (Either an opaque LCD shutter or a physical, motorized sunshade inside the helmet glass.)

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     Isaac Ji Kuo (isaackuo@spacey.space)'s status on Monday, 30-Dec-2024 00:45:48 JST Isaac Ji Kuo

     in reply to

     @nyrath You would think that this could be a solved problem, since it's not entirely dissimilar to the problem that car drivers face regularly because we make roads that point directly into the Sun.

     To me, there is an obvious practical solution because of a lack of roads that force you to drive straight into the Sun.

     You simply walk facing sideways to the Sun. You can shade your eyes from the Sun with the side of your helmet, and light reflected off your suit will provide adequate lighting.

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     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Monday, 30-Dec-2024 02:23:18 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Isaac Ji Kuo

     @isaackuo @nyrath External spacesuit parasols on the moon: there's no weather to mess with it so it can be flimsier than a terrestrial parasol, you can use a small motorized gimbal mount to keep it oriented without bugging the astronaut, it'll reduce the load on the suit's cooling system ... I see no drawbacks here except complexity?

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     Isaac Ji Kuo (isaackuo@spacey.space)'s status on Monday, 30-Dec-2024 02:23:19 JST Isaac Ji Kuo

     in reply to

     • Charlie Stross

     @cstross @nyrath I had also thought about some sort of sun shade, but then I realized that an astronaut is already wearing one (assuming the sides of the helmet can provide the desired shade).

     Still, a simple parasol could also be useful. My feeling is that an external parasol would be better than an internal one. With a typical astronaut suit, you can't really reach around on the inside. As such, when something on the inside goes wrong, it tends to become a big problem.