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.'"

Comments

Glove, what glove?

[cy_a253]

Honestly, what would happen if an astronaut just stuck his naked arm out from an airlock into outer space?

A common misbelief is that it would either instantly freeze or explode.

Space is a complete vaccuum, just like the kind in thermos bottles, and it's a VERY good thermal insulant. If your arm is at 37C, and you stick it in the best insulant possible, it will remain at 37C.

Now, the pressure inside your arm is one atmosphere, and the pressure outside is zero, so gases would begin to want to exit your arm, liquids will slowly turn to gases, tissues would expand, yes, but NOT EXPLOSIVELY.

Have you seen 2001: A Space Odyssey? At one point an astronaut jumps from a repair pod to an airlock without an helmet and survives just fine, which is perfectly realistic. The greatest worry is actually all the radiation that outer space is bathed in.

So for the glove design, a basic glove would an impermable layer and on top of that a metallic layer to block the radiations. It would, however, get hot very quick, so a cooling system becomes necessary for extended work outside. But a basic glove can be paper thin, because vaccuum is more harmless than you might think.

They really...

[Anonymous Coward]

I see NASA has really thrown down the gauntlet with this challenge!

Re:All dressed up but nowhere to go...

[bombadier_beetle]

Glove design for EVA suits was/is one of the toughest challenges NASA and the Russian space program had to face. It's not "weird technology," it's one of the more crucial parts of an EVA suit. There's an excellent exhibit in the new National Air and Space Museum extension that illustrates the different designs and challenges that engineers went through.