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Two swatches of ITMG (Integrated Thermal Micrometeoroid Garment) material attested to as deriving from the A7L Pressure Suit worn by moonwalker Alan Bean during the historic Apollo 12 mission. The gray and white swatches, both approximately .5˝ x .5˝, are housed in a plastic container affixed to a signed letter of authenticity from Sandy Clarkson of The Right Stuff Space, who notes: “The grey piece of ITMG material is from the outer layer of Bean's spacesuit. The normally white outer layer is grey from exposure to the Lunar surface. The white piece of fabric is from the suit's layer immediately below the outer layer. Apollo spacesuits had multiple layers of different materials to protect the astronauts.” In fine condition.
The balance of the letter reads: “The routine NASA cleaning operations planned for spacesuits returning from Lunar missions were modified for one of the Apollo 12 spacesuits. All mission flown hardware, including spacesuits, were normally transferred to the Smithsonian Institution for future preservation. With their approval, the TMG outer layer of Alan Bean's spacesuit was removed and downgraded to Class III Hardware. Class III hardware was used for testing and engineering support of future spacesuit development, for ‘spare parts,’ for ‘show & tell’ demonstrations or just simply scrapped or discarded.
Since the outer surface of the ITMG layer of the Apollo spacesuit assembly bared the brunt of the Lunar surface environment during the extravehicular activities, it was determined from the engineering point of view that it was necessary to examine the wear characteristics. And to test the physical properties of the ITMG outer layer fabric of a spacesuit after return from a Lunar surface mission. Of concern was the potential damaging effect the Lunar materials would have on the protective suit material. This information was of high importance in consideration of determining crew member spacesuit protection for future missions.
In the case of Alan Bean's spacesuit, the ‘testing’ ostensibly conducted by White Sands folks was to inspect the ITMG material to determine various areas of the garment and if indeed the Lunar surface did make contact with these areas; did it result with significant damage to the materials and if so; how serious were the contact points in regard to crew safety.
The down-graded outer layer ITMG material was shipped to NASA's White Sands Test Center for conducting the appropriate tests. Numerous sample swatches were removed from the ITMG material and a series of tests performed to determine its ‘wear-ability’ and abrasion resistance. The testing indicated that little damage was shown on the material as a result of the exposure to the Lunar surface which pleased the engineering community. Subsequently no changes or modifications to future Apollo spacesuits were made.
The remaining small sample ITMG material ‘remnants’ were bagged and returned to the NASA Johnson Space Center and were placed in ‘excess material’ stowage. They remained there for many years until being disposed of during routine NASA facility ‘clean out’ activities of most of the Class III Apollo hardware items. This was done prior to the start of the Shuttle Program. Basically, these few non-reusable ‘remnants’ were fortunately saved by a ‘dumpster-diving’ operation.”
