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MIT Team Designs a New, Sleek, Skintight Spacesuit

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the spandex-makes-a-comeback dept.

iamdrscience writes "MIT aeronautics professor Dava Newman has designed a new spacesuit along with her colleague, Jeff Hoffman and a group of students. This is far sleeker and lighter weight than the suits used by astronauts today, promising greater mobility than the traditional bulky suits of today which can weigh 300lbs or more. Instead of gas pressurization, the new prototype BioSuit employs "mechanical counter-pressure" in the form of skin-tight layers wrapped around the body."
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/biosuit-0716.html

31 of 383 comments (clear)

  1. Slashcode predicts ... by A+non-mouse+Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Nothing for you to see here. Please move along."
    --
    libertarian: (n) socially liberal, financially conservative; neither left, nor right.
    1. Re:Slashcode predicts ... by A+non-mouse+Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Exclusive pictures.

      Turns out, it only works if you wear it in a robotic cat.

      --
      libertarian: (n) socially liberal, financially conservative; neither left, nor right.
    2. Re:Slashcode predicts ... by Bastardchyld · · Score: 2, Funny

      So it took MIT to invent "Space Spandex."

      So tell me again what you get when you take 5 grad students with a Lance Armstrong fetish and an affection for NASA, and how does it better society?

      --
      $diff terrorists hippies
      $
      $rm -rf *terrorists *hippies
    3. Re:Slashcode predicts ... by pugugly · · Score: 4, Funny

      It gives us a tight, form-fitting suit to be worn by fit women going into space.

      Admittedly, this is just a first step to a world where all the women look like the covers of 50's pulp magazines, but really, how can that *not* improve society.

      I for one welcome our new Amazonian over, um, overladies?

        - Pug

      --
      An Invisible Entity of Vast Power whose existence must be taken on faith alone: Liberal Media
    4. Re:Slashcode predicts ... by Walt+Dismal · · Score: 2, Funny

      Space brassiere. One small step for a woman, a giant throbbing problem for mankind.

  2. But why .... by taniwha · · Score: 3, Funny

    is Margaret Thatcher modelling it?

    1. Re:But why .... by sokoban · · Score: 5, Funny

      You see, they were really trying to get Teri Hatcher, but the memo just said "T. Hatcher".

      Somebody misread it as Thatcher, and just ran with it.

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
    2. Re:But why .... by WhatHappenedToTanith · · Score: 3, Funny

      Space Thatcher? Great, as if us comet miners didnt have a hard enough job already!

      --
      Like Wargaming?
    3. Re:But why .... by sokoban · · Score: 2, Funny

      Close enough, I'm from Kentucky.

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
  3. uh oh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm going to have alot trouble hiding my giant boner as I check out the female astrounaut corps.

    1. Re:uh oh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      You forgot, "4. I doubt you have a giant boner."

  4. obligatory by penp · · Score: 5, Funny

    They're waiting for you, Gordon. In the Test Chamber.

  5. The future is now! by ZeroExistenZ · · Score: 4, Funny

    All these skintight spacesuits on attractive women in science fiction movies are finally reality!

    --
    I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
  6. Next challenge: by Glowing+Fish · · Score: 5, Funny

    The next thing they have to make is a chain metal bikini that can give Elven Warrior Maidens the protection from dragon fire they need.

    --
    Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
    1. Re:Next challenge: by R2.0 · · Score: 2, Funny

      I saw a girl wearing one of those at the MD RennFest a few years ago. I asked my wife if she would wear one. She declined.

      --
      "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
  7. With the fist of an angry god! by Misanthrope · · Score: 2, Funny

    http://web.mit.edu/aeroastro/www/people/dnewman/bi o.html
    What more could a nerd ask for. I mean really, she designs
    space suits.

    1. Re:With the fist of an angry god! by Gilmoure · · Score: 4, Funny

      Her right ear looks to be 1/4" lower than the right. Deal breaker, that is.

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
  8. Oh No.... by MojoRilla · · Score: 2, Funny

    Welcome to a world where the Fantastic Four get science right. Nooooooooooooo!

  9. Re:Another plug for the metric system by eln · · Score: 5, Funny

    And on that note, how is having 300 lbs (or mass-equivalent) less gear going to keep you from hopping off the moon into outerspace forever? Didn't the extra mass come in handy to keep people from flying away? Actually, the new space suit makes astronauts look sexier, thereby causing the moon to be more attracted to them. This increased attraction makes it less likely they will fly away. Of course, it also means they have to change back into the clunky old fashioned space suits when they want to take off, in order to decrease the Moon's attraction enough to let them go. It also means that the Moon may call them several times a day to try to get them to come back, and may occasionally drift closer to the Earth to get a better look at them, despite the restraining order barring the Moon from getting within 230,000 miles.

    Sure, this seems like a good idea, but it's really not cool to play around with the Moon's emotions like that. No one has visited it in 35 years, and it is getting pretty desperate for attention.
  10. Re:300 lbs by tarogue · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, silly! A pound is a unit of currency. A stone is a unit of weight.

    --
    Life sucks, but death doesn't put out at all. -- Thomas J. Kopp
  11. Stupid sexy astronauts... by PhotoGuy · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Feels like I'm wearing nothing at all... Nothing at all... Nothing at all..."

    --
    Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
  12. More important.. by QuantumG · · Score: 4, Funny

    won't people see the diaper?

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
  13. Re:Old idea, new implementation by networkBoy · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Of course, most of us would look like crap in a tight spandex bodystocking anyway."

    And therein is how I will repel the micro-meteorites. My ugly-ass body will scare them enough to deflect their path.
    -nB

    --
    whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
  14. Re:PHYSICS: Why skin tight may be a bad idea by timeOday · · Score: 4, Funny

    It seems to me that if this thing is mechanically applying 16 PSI in vacuum then it must apply 32 PSI when inside the capsule. That's going to raise your blood pressure. Not by enough to be harmful, (after all scuba divers have the same).
    This gets at my question, which is why pressurization is needed at all. Diving from 1 to 2 atmospheres is no big deal. Why is going from 1 to 0 such a problem?
  15. Stupid sexy Flanders... by Cyno01 · · Score: 4, Funny

    n/t

    --
    "Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
  16. Re:300 lbs by Belacgod · · Score: 5, Funny

    Really, stone should be a unit for measuring drug potency.

  17. no problem by r00t · · Score: 3, Funny

    The suit's pressure takes care of that. Everyone's dick looks the same, a paper thin wrap around your entire torso.

  18. Re:The Millennial Project by R2.0 · · Score: 2, Funny

    "chest plate might be useful to provide radiation protection and protection from micrometeors and the like"

    Screw that - I would demand a titanium codpiece.

    Gotta protect the parts that really matter.

    --
    "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
  19. feels like i'm wearing... by LingNoi · · Score: 2, Funny

    nothing at all, nothing at all!, NOTHING AT ALL!

    Stupid sexy Flanders!

  20. But... by Monkey_Genius · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does it come in velour?

    --
    I've got your sig, right here.
  21. Re:PHYSICS: Why skin tight may be a bad idea by vertinox · · Score: 2, Funny

    Why is going from 1 to 0 such a problem?

    The body sized hickey.

    --
    "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
    -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)