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NASA's Astronaut Glove Design Competition
FleaPlus writes "NASA's Centennial Challenges program has announced its latest prize contest, the Astronaut Glove Challenge. The competition, a collaboration between NASA and the non-profit Volanz Aerospace, will be held in late 2006 and will award $250K to the team which produces the best-performing glove within contest parameters. The basic idea was originally proposed last year on Rand Simberg's Transterrestrial Musings blog to improve on current gloves, which have difficulties with remaining flexible while maintaining constant internal pressure in the vacuum of space. Previously-announced competitions include prizes for superstrong tethers, beaming power, and extracting oxygen from lunar regolith. These prizes are intended to lay the groundwork for larger competitions to further NASA's Vision for Space Exploration, possibly including 'an eight-figure prize for the first privately developed robotic moon lander.'"
...who now will have a way to keep his thoughts clean by occupying himself designing this glove. He'll just have to get it straight that an astronaut needs both gloves.
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Why don't they just reverse engineer one from the aliens?!? :)
because I have been enjoined by this Holy Office to abandon the false opinion which maintains that the Sun is the centre
Fred Savage's Power Glove looks to me to be pretty awesome.
These gloves were originally designed for plumbers who jump on mushrooms, turtles and flagpoles - not for space exploration.
"Who says nothing is impossible? Some people do it every day!" - Alfred E. Neuman
Here's my design. Comment on it at will.
A guy walks into a bar... well, I forgot the joke, but the punchline is that he's an alcoholic.
They could separate the head and the body unit from each other and just pump fresh oxygen into the head. The suit could possibly have recycled oxygen that's cooled for temperature control.
That way the hands could be a bit easier to move due to the lower pressure. The suit could also be just a touch baggy.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
[Example - superstrong tether: SpyDerMan]
Power Glove
Beaming Power
Extracting oxygen from lunar regolith
Robotic Moon lander
*uninformative, interesting*
*entries must be postmarked by 7/23 to qualify for free ipod drawing*
I see NASA has really thrown down the gauntlet with this challenge!
I have it on good authority that it really isn't that cold in space. I IM with a fellow who was recently involved in penetrating DoD networks using 3l3t skillz who said they have conclusive data that the average temperature in space is 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Mind you, it's a little colder in winter and a little warmer in summer. I figure a pair of shorts and a Hawaiian shirt should suffice for most days.
So, why not just use the same leather work gloves we use on Earth? Or, is this just another way for NASA to get a budget hike?
What those who want activist courts fear is rule by the people.
but it get's lonely up there I'd definitely need a build-in lotion dispenser.
-:)
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
Never mind; I just realized that that's what skin is for. I feel stupid now...
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Anybody else smell a Mythbusters episode in the works? We all know how well Adam does with vacuums.
I've been looking for a three syllable word for "dirt". Thanks FleaPlus!
-Peter