Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Evolution of Space Suit Design

Posted by samzenpus on from the spray-on-pants dept.

William_Lee writes "According to space.com, it looks like we may finally be on the verge of seeing a long overdue, radical redesign of space suits that will result in much lighter, more maneuverable, custom fitted suits. Now if we can actually get around to sending someone to Mars..."

3 of 304 comments (clear)

  1. Re:About time.. by s0m3body · · Score: 4, Informative

    it DOES matter even in space

    being free of gravity does not mean being free of inertia

  2. Years and years and years ago by multiplexo · · Score: 5, Informative
    in that lost and far-away decade of the Jerry Pournelle described in an article in Galaxy that was later reprinted in A Step Farther Out some space suit research that David Clark did in the late 1960s. This was for suits that would provide pressure via a skin tight fit. Unfortunately NASA stopped doing this research and stuck with the suits we have today, which are large, cumbersome, heavy and extremely expensive. Pournelle described how these suits would work in a couple of his novels including Birth of Fire and Exiles to Glory, it's nice to see that NASA is now getting their shit together and restarting this research.

    --
    cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.
  3. Ventilated Space Suit by bluyonder · · Score: 4, Informative

    Human skin is actually a surprisingly strong pressure barrier. The conterpressure suit can be an open weave with up to millimeter sized openings. The biggest problem is figuring out how to keep pressure on the concave areas such as under the arms and behind the knees. An advantage of counterpressure suits is that a tear in the suit doesn't result in catastrophic pressure loss. It only causes injury to the area of the tear. Another problem with them is getting them on and off. It would be like putting super tight pantyhose over your whole body. (not that I know anything about that)

    Here are some papers on counterpressure suits:
    http://mvl.mit.edu/EVA/BioSuitDJN_Nov03.pdf
    http://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/publications/ICES02- 2311.pdf
    http://mvl.mit.edu/EVA/NIACPhaseIReport.pdf