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The Evolution of Space Suit Design
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..."
http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/i mg_display.php?pic=h_astronaut_djn_02.jpg&cap=Futu re+space+explorers+may+apply+a+%93spray-on%94+seco nd+skin%2C+an+organic%2C+biodegradable+layer+offer ing+protection+in+extremely+dusty+planetary+enviro nments.+Incorporated+into+the+second+skin+will+be+ electrically+actuated+artificial+muscle+fibers+to+ enhance+human+strength+and+stamina.+Artwork%3A+Cam +Brensiger
Looks more like space flight will include playboy subscriptions.
These images are just asking for trouble.
They are just like the aircraft safety pictures that did the rounds a while back.
liqbase
I was actually just watching an IMAX Nasa special the other day and was shocked to hear that the current space suits weigh in at almost 250lbs!! I know that without gravity, it doesn't matter how much you weigh, but the bulk in those suits seriously made it hard for the astronauts to do their job at times.
A new "second skin" version of the suit would certainly make it easier on the astronauts, and would free up a ton of space for hauling more cargo up there as well.
On a side note, Nasa was testing this cool 100ft solar array in the movie, which when folded up fit into a 7 inch tall box! It was pretty cool.
Tight-fitting suits may mean that astronauts are more likely to get turned on, resulting in all kinds of mayham and soap operas. Space can get lonely. Maybe the baggy look is better afterall.
Table-ized A.I.
...the first medical accident when someone thinks this stuff is aerosol cheese.
I don't get it.
Yes, with Lord Bush's leadership, we can finally bring Democracy(c) to Mars!
This article contains material on spacesuit evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of spacesuits. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered.
A thin layer of biomaterial may be sufficient for protecting you from the vacuum of space if they get around the engineering considerations, but I for one would not want a "second skin" as my only protection from radiation and cosmic rays.
This is a consideration particularly where there is no atmosphere absorbing any of it before it gets to you (eg the moon and Earth orbit). The Earth also has its magnetic field helping shield us.
Also consider that the thinnner and lighter a material is the more likely a rip becomes. That one rip will easily end your life. You'd need to incorporate a system self repair of small holes and tears - perhaps a gluey substance that seals under pressure.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Is it just me... or do the old suits look freakin' cool and the new ones look totally gay?
The old ones look functional, with color-coded hose hook-ups and all... like a deep-sea diver... a deep-space diver, if you will.
These new ones... jeez... you can tell if the guy's circumcised or not! Seeing as how an astronaut is probably more likely to encounter an alien being than the rest of us land-lubbers, I'd be very concerned if the first human the martians meet is dressed like a metrosexual.
Just because he announced a plan doesn't mean anything. NASA isn't getting the funding(it needs massive increasesm not cutbacks) to actually DO any of the things talked about.
There thing that would stop me from going into space in a new or old suit it small, but important (to me).
What if I get an itchy nose?
I know it sounds silly, but I'm serious. I can imagine getting a serious, claustrophobic panic attack in one of those things, of something as minor as that. Being trapped in this thing and unable to take it off.
If you read official NASA stuff, you will find that the space suits are there to keep the guys warm in the cold of space. That is total BS. Put a self warming thing in a perfect insulator and what happens? It gets hot. It turns out that since the Russians haven't figured out how to make peltier effect space suits, that many of the details of the Apollo era suits are still secret. Even some of the details of early astronaut almost dying from dehydrating in their suits haven't been released
One of the other things is that your blood will boil or explode in space. Thats not true either. All thats needed to protect the skin is a thin layer of something like a cheap wet suit. There have been studies that show thick rubber gloves would work fine for the pressure if there was a way to get rid of the sweat.
The real mechanical problem is keeping the head protected along with proper containment of everything the body is trying to get rid of.
Of course the real problem is all that radiation.
it may be incredibly heavy by earth measure, but the suit also includes a personalized liquid cooling system, thermal protection for the extreme temperature differences between sun and shade, and a pretty serious amount of puncture protection. While it may not fit the bill for hiking across the mars terrain, it does offer some serious advantages over what sounds like an incredibly complex and complicated applied second skin. having worn one (attended space camp far too many years ago), i'd have to say that i much prefer it to a wet suit.
When did George Bush start posting to Slashdot?
Thanks to the strong leadership of President Bush, we have a real plan for space, as opposed to mostly circling around Earth currently.
Unfortunately, because it's been announced by President Bush, many people who oppose his other policies (for good reason) will also tend to oppose his space policy, even if they would support it if it were proposed by somebody else.
Yeah: like cutting Hubble. And racking up record defecits while privately funded firms remind us what the excitement of space exploration used to be all about.
If Bush really wanted to show some leadership, he'd splash ISS, scrap the Shuttle, and set some realistic short-term goals that his administration would actually have to pay for.
NASA *is* doing great work with its robotic programs. But most of those programs were green-lighted when President W was still back in Texas making his bones by polluting his state and signing 152 death warrants.
Feel free to mod me down, Republican bastards. ;-)
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
it clear we aren't going anywhere other than perhaps Iran or some other third-world country
Hmmmm.....
Iran:
(image)
Mars:
(image)
I sense a conspiracy in the making...
People said I was dumb, but I proved them.
cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.
What Bush has done is decimate the scientific programs of NASA and had the agency over to the aerospace lobby. But with comments like...
"mostly circling around Earth"
you have made your impression of science apparent
Did you know that the "science of the outer planets" scientific research line for 2005
Was just cut? Yup, wiped off the board. This was a small program, only a few million, and it funded some very interesting work... Well, it's gone now, I guess that makes you feel very patriotic...
"God Bless America"... indeed
"Truth is much too complicated to allow anything but approximations"
http://www.batkhela.com/msn/power-rangers-display- pictures.shtmlOops I meant this.
I couldn't think of a sig.
Incorporated into that second skin would be electrically actuated artificial muscle fibers to enhance human strength and stamina.
Right - this technology is WAY far away. Synthetic muscle fibers have been under development for the last decade. One of the first innovations were Contractle Polymers. These have since given way to other technologies - but non yet equal the strength of human muscle. In addition to make them more useful, these fibers are going to have to be multiples of the strength of human muscle. Also, the notion of a "spray on" skin that creates a powered exomuscular infrastructure requires a fusing of so many current and future technologies that this is not a particularly realistic goal at this time.
I think what i'm trying to say - this isn't news it's a dream. Obviously people need to figure it out - but there are not going to be tangible results from such research for sometime.
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)
- 2311.pdf
Here are some papers on counterpressure suits:
http://mvl.mit.edu/EVA/BioSuitDJN_Nov03.pdf
http://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/publications/ICES02
http://mvl.mit.edu/EVA/NIACPhaseIReport.pdf
If by "horrible", you mean "life threatening", then I don't know about that. But if by "horrible" you mean, "the utter agony upon removal of the suit when every single hair on your body is ripped out one by one", then yes, I agree completely.
Things like this are the perfect target for the Centennial Challenges program, a NASA program of prize contests for private endeavours to create or accomplish things related to space exploration. Spacesuit design is an area where a small private company can make appreciable progress with a reasonable amount of investment.
An even more specific goal is a better astronaut glove. Gloves sound like very simple things, but it's been pretty tricky so far to create a glove which can reliably remain intact in a vacuum while also giving the user a good degree of manual dexterity. A space policy analyst said the following in an article:
In fact, the glove is the biggest problem in designing the high-pressure space suits necessary to avoid the bends (the same problem a diver has when she surfaces too quickly) when an astronaut goes out into the vacuum of space. Larger joints like shoulders and knees have special designs that are zero-volume change, but no one has yet miniaturized such a design to finger joints.
Because this is a critical technology, and one that has great leverage in influencing launch system trades, I would propose the following:
Build a vacuum glove box with a task box inside (perhaps an automobile engine that has to be dissassembled and reassembled). Put up a purse of a million dollars to the first person who can achieve the task working through gloves under a pressure differential of half an atmosphere, without a break.
Unlike many space activities, it's a project that can be literally done in someone's garage, and it may spur a great amount of innovation for very low cost. Accordingly, it would make an excellent candidate for the Office of Exploration's new prize fund, and I hope they'll strongly consider it. At very low cost to the taxpayers, one or more successful concepts could lay to rest myths about the intrinsic difficulty of working in space, opening up the options for how we will get to the planets beyond redoing Apollo, perhaps saving billions in dollars, and constituting a major step toward becoming a truly spacefaring nation.