Atmospheric temperatures

Temperature variations are normal through a day or season and this is also true of space and astronauts and colonists need to take precautions against the temperature variations. This table shows some of the variations we can expect as both astronauts and colonists:

	Average	Exterior night-	Exterior Day-
Absolute Zero		-273.15 C / -457.67 F / 0 K
ISS surfaces	22 C / 71.6 F	-100 C / -148 F	126.6 C / 260 F
Space Walk	Suit 21 C / 69.8F	-156.6 C / -250 F	121.1 C / 250 F
Moon surface		-173 C / -280 F	127 C / 260 F
Earth	16°C / 61°F	-97.8 C / -144 F Coldest recorded	56.7 C / 134 F Hottest Recorded
Mars	-28 C / -20°F	-125 C / -195 F at the poles in winter	30 C /86 F Equatorial

Astronauts in space use a backpack that can heat and cool their suits to compensate for the varying temperatures. Lunar explorers and colonists would use the same arrangement but they also have an additional ability to manage exterior temperatures by limiting their excursions to temperate zones and time of day.

The main concern with temperature control during a colonial excursion is loss of, or low power to the temperature control units. Noted earlier the solution is an external power coupling on the suit to permit external re-supply in an emergency situation. 

A supplemental temperature control module should also be available as a backup should the entire suit module fail. Such a supplemental module would need to connect externally to the suit but completely bypass the suits internal temperature control modules should that fail. 

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