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Next-Gen Spacesuits
ambermichelle writes "Outer space is a hostile environment for humans, characterized by an airless vacuum, thermal extremes, ionizing radiation and speeding micro meteoroids. Less well-known are the dangers posed by long-term exposure to microgravity or zero-g conditions, which over time severely saps the strength of astronauts' muscles and bones. Several researchers are working to develop new spacesuit designs that could help counteract these threats as well as avoid some of the familiar drawbacks of current spacesuit models such as bulk, weight and rigidity."
...when we resume manned space exploration. and develop a manned space vehicle to take us there again.
was contained in the bladder in one boot in the Apollo pressure-suit designs. I wonder what they'll do for these elastic suits.
The next generation vehicles are almost ready, and we have a lot of new things in launch vehicles happening. A lot of the old Space Shuttle facilities are being refitted, and a lot of work couldn't be done until we were done using these resources on the shuttle. The time to develop a suit isn't after the vehicle is ready and it's time to start planning missions. It's good that we are pushing the next generation of suits forward. The United States is still #1 in space technology, and are the only ones working on anything really groundbreaking.
Sig: I stole this sig.
I'm not sure what percentage of the time the crew would need to wear these suits to prevent atrophy. I am sure it will be more than they are willing to put up with.
We are going to have to come up with solutions on a much grander scale to change the environment, not adapt to it. It's how we humans have taken over the planet and how we will take over space. But we won't do it till we spend a lot more time on earth doing the grunt work (engineering and thinking) instead of spending billions on half baked manned missions to nowhere worthwhile.
I had been watching some of the news and documentaries about the group doing the suits. They still had quite a few hurdles to overcome, as the squeeze suit had not been able to provide enough pressure to reach that critical 1/3rd of an atmosphere. The Article does not seem to indicate if they have tackled that, only "proven the technical feasibility", which sounds about where I heard they were last.
When I saw them plying a big length of rubber on the leg of someone, it looked like something ready to cut off someone's circulation if left on too long. It tripped a few skeptical alarms for me. Will these have to be custom fitted? What happens if someone gains or loses weight(ie: mass)? Will using them for any length of time be uncomfortable or dangerous to people? They seem pretty happy to wander around in public wearing what appears to be a prototype. It just worries me that it might be a lot of hot air.
The use of Gyros sounds a bit odd, perhaps I am not quite sure of the process in which bones lose density. I would have thought the loss of bone mass is from the lack of gravity bones are subjected to in the first place, not a lack of resistance to movement. Gravity pulls mostly uniformly on people, Gyros probably won't help too much for putting resistance on someone's spine or other bones in the center of one's mass. It might help some for muscle loss though. Has NASA agreed to ship some of these up to the ISS for some testing?
Its a shame without shuttle like services we might not be able to do too much testing of the technologies we want to use to survive the trip, live on, and return from Mars. There are many that would be a great help.
Really. What has mankind to offer the universe, but its appetites and its quest for novelty? Get your act together back home.
Everything out there is different, except you. Your essential problems are portable.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Unfortunately it looks like the human species (and maybe most multicellular animals!) is just not suited for long duration space flight and maybe even habitation of other (lesser gravity) worlds.
http://io9.com/5881355/microgravity-screws-us-up-at-a-cellular-level
If this turns out to be true (I know they are using fruit flies but Drosphilia are a good proxy for humans for many things) then we're going to have very serious problems in doing anything other than "plant the flag" style missions. At what point is there "enough" gravity to allow the proper development of a human fetus? Half a gravity? A third? (Mars). A sixth? (the moon). That's why probably the single most important next step for manned space flight is probably the addition of a large (capable of handling mice, preferably primates) centrifuge to the ISS. I recall that it was once meant to be part of it but was cancelled. WE NEED THESE QUESTIONS ANSWERED.
And if the news is bad and humans can't go through a complete life cycle in anything appreciably less than one gee? Then it's time to hack the genome and (possibly) create a new species! While we're at it, we might as add ability to withstand brief (1-2 minutes?) exposure to vacuum (I understand that oxygen comes out of your blood quickly and you can't hold your breath because your lungs will burst. So you pass out in seconds). Also, radiation hardening would be good (some animals like tardigrads can take thousands of times more exposure). The ability to hibernate would be great and I'm sure there are a lot more abilities we could wish for.
In short maybe Homo Astra (or something like that, I don't know Latin).
Otherwise our robots will conquer the universe without us (or at least until we can download our minds into them).
Insightful? I hope you realize that Earth's orbit will be engulfed by the Sun in a few billion years. Not leaving the planet = extinction.
IMHO it's quite certain that mankind will fail. But that doesn't mean we should just give up and stop trying right now.