Recently in the Beyond Blastoff exhibit at Chabot Space and Science Center I was showing the sample of space suit material to a visitor. The outer layers of the suit are designed to help protect the spacewalker from many hazards, including micrometeorites, tiny bits of dust to sand sized bits of stuff flying through space.
The visitor asked me if the astronauts could feel the micrometeorites hitting the suit and I had to say I did not know, but would try to find out. I sent off an email to Chris Hatfield and Bobby Satcher, both NASA astronauts who have walked in space who I met on my recent trip to Russia.
Both of them agreed that they were not aware of any astronaut being hit my a micrometeorite. Seems that space is pretty big, and an astronaut is a pretty small target relative to the number of micrometeorites whizzing by. They had never heard of a suit being damaged by one or even showing any signs after the fact of having been hit in any of the many hundreds of hours of EVA that have happened since the 1960's.
Space suits have developed small leaks, especially around the glove from working too hard causing snags/tears/rub-throughs, but all very small, well within the O2 supply capacity of the suit. Seems that just working in space puts a lot of strain in this area. But the leaks have been small, and the suit is designed to handle small leaks and can compensate by increasing the flow of oxygen.
Chris added that in the training pool there have been a few cases of bigger leaks in the suits. A shoulder seam popped open, and a few cracked visors, but this is in a training environment, and it is expected that things will go wrong there.
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