The Sokol Space Suit: Helen Sharman on Being In Space

A space suit is a carefully engineered cocoon, designed to protect an astronaut from the perils of the abyss. Helen Sharman walks us through the suit she trusted with her life when she went into space.
Day 6 of our advent calendar, A Place Called Space: rigb.org/advent
Helen Sharman tells presenter Dallas Campbell how this space suit kept her safe when she went to the Mir space station in 1991, and gives some insight into what life as an astronaut is really like.
‘A Place Called Space’ is the 2015 Royal Institution advent calendar. Every day in the run up to Christmas we'll be releasing an original piece of content exploring the human experience and cultural significance of space travel. With hand-drawn animations, experiments in zero gravity, interviews with astronauts and creative data visualisations, the calendar will fire you into space every morning.
'A Place Called Space' channels the voices of seasoned astronauts and expert scientists through the eyes of a team of talented animators, film-makers and artists, bringing you a thought-provoking gem to kick-start each day.
Check it out at rigb.org/advent
Subscribe for regular science videos: bit.ly/RiSubscRibe
The Ri is on Twitter: / ri_science
and Facebook: / royalinstitution
and Tumblr: / ri-science
Our editorial policy: www.rigb.org/ho...
Subscribe for the latest science videos: bit.ly/RiNewsle...

[@EugeneKhutoryansky]

This brings to mind, the space race must have been very unsettling from the British perspective. The U.K. quickly went from being one of the largest empires in all of history, to pretty much just sitting on the sidelines as the U.S. and U.S.S.R. were racing against each other to move out into the final frontier.

[@whoeveriam0iam14222]

let's talk about the suit
this knob regulates the pressure and the Mir space station takes up the rest of the video

[@StrunDoNhor]

And here I was hoping for a documentary-type video explaining the complex mechanics and materials that go into making these suits, and the reasoning and purposes behind those mechanical/materials. Perhaps a brief history on some of the challenges that had to be overcome when designing the first suits. Instead, we get, "This knob controls pressure," and... That's it.
I don't like sounding so jaded, but I was really expecting more :/

[@derekthomson3025]

+StrunDoNhor
Same here, such a disappointment.

[@dinimit4]

Interesting that although the video only has 10 dislikes and over 200 likes, the comments are all negative (about 10 right now) . Point being people who are negative are generally louder than those who are not.

[@AldoOjeda]

So cool, being in space must be the most awesome experience a human being can have.

[@TheGamblermusic]

Bravo Madam.

[@mickles1975]

A Sheffield lass come good.

[@Tangobaldy]

Well how uninformarive was that.

[@leenva]

Barely focuses on the suit

[@TheSwissGabber]

+leenva
"barely"? more like "didn't"

[@3enjoy3]

Disappointed with this one. Expected it to concentrate on the spacesuit!

[@samuelefox9487]

So call

[@wrote8]

Rubbish - c'mon RI get it together! And the 'music' was rubbish as well - just made it difficult to hear what they were saying.

[@Eastmead]

Spoilt by the stupid unnecessary music.