MIT Works On Mars Space Suit

An anonymous reader writes in with a story about MIT's work on space suits to be used by Mars astronauts. "When we send the first humans to Mars we will need to get the most scientific data in the smallest amount of time while not exhausting our astronauts in the process. Dava J. Newman has been working on a 'biosuit' that's designed to do just that....Dava’s suit would be a huge leap forward in terms of construction as well. They’ve enlisted the expertise of Dainese, an Italian manufacturer of motorcycle racing 'leathers'—leather and carbon-fiber suits designed to protect racers traveling at up to 200 mph. The suit would be a degree safer than current space suits. While a puncture or scrape in a traditional space suit would cause a dramatic decrease in pressure and would be traumatic, even deadly, the 'biosuit' could be patched with a high-tech ace bandage. The wearer would wrap it around the punctured area to stop the leak almost instantly. Pressure loss would be minimal and the astronaut would be able to continue working and finish his or her task. "

Comments

Do they have better gloves?

[Anonymous Coward]

In normal spacesuits, it is painful to use your hands and eventually you will lose your fingernails due to chafing inside of the gloves. From a user's comfort perspective, this is probably the biggest issue. Spacewalkers would love this tech if it has decent flexible gloves that are resistant to puncturing (which is among the reasons traditional gloves are built so rigidly).

Re:Do they have better gloves?

[shaitand]

This is Slashdot not an academic paper, the burden is on the reader to find references not the writer to provide them.

Major issue with space suits ...

[PPH]

... is the need to maintain sufficient internal pressure to sustain human life without being too stiff to work in for long periods. Suits made more skin tight are the current area of research. That seems to be what MIT is working on.

I'd like to see some work along the lines of a smart G suit type garment that can sense the occupant's movements and compensate by reshaping itself dynamically. Probably something based on artificial muscle fibers rather than compressed air.

Re:Major issue with space suits ...

[Electricity Likes Me]

The problem with all the high tech approaches is power. We simply don't have a portable power source that could supply energy for long enough to make any of the really cool ideas work.

Mars does have air pressure

[CRCulver]

In his Mars trilogy beginning with Red Mars , Kim Stanley Robinson spent quite some time musing on suits for exploring the surface of Mars. I found it interesting that, although Mars has a very thin atmosphere compared to Earth, the presence of any atmosphere at all makes it much easier to design a flexible, comfortable suit than for the landings on the moon or spacewalks.

Re:Mars does have air pressure

[Hentes]

On the other hand, Mars suits have to withstand the sandstorms there.

Re:Mars does have air pressure

[Tx]

ISTR the "walkers" used in Red Mars were along the lines of the suits described in the article, i.e. a form-fitting mechanical resistance suit, rather than a pressure suit. There was also some sort of open-cycle breathing system that was much less bulky that what we have today, but I can't remember the details.

Re:Mars does have air pressure

[sjames]

That may or may be worse than the moon where the dust particles are unpolished (and so very abrasive) and stick to everything due to static charges that don't dissipate in vacuum.

Re:Mars does have air pressure

[Teancum]

Your skin is pretty resilient to pressure, so you can survive (briefly) in a vacuum if necessary. The scene in Titan A.E. where the protagonist busts out the cockpit window and uses a fire extinguisher for propulsion to flying through space without a spacesuit is at least somewhat realistic and could in theory actually happen... assuming you could get into an air lock under a minute or so and get it to quick repressurize so you could catch a breath of air. You would be in pain, but still be alive.

Basically, on the surface of Mars, you could in theory run between two different buildings a few dozen meters apart without a space suit using the same principle. In an emergency, there at least would be a high probability of survival even if it isn't something recommended. It would be sort of like swimming a few dozen meters underwater and holding your breath the whole time.

BTW, the surface pressure on Mars is 6 millibar, not 600. In Hellas Basin (the lowest point on Mars) that goes up to 12 millibars of pressure. By comparison, the air pressure at the top of Mount Everest is about 300 millibar, and the typical air pressure at sea level on the Earth is about 1000 millibar. The 600 figure is likely in Pascals (another pressure unit), because 100 kiloPascals is the same as 1 bar or 1000 millibar. Yeah, it is pretty close to a vacuum no matter what way you cut it.

The Kim Stanley Robinson books covering Mars has a couple of chapters devoted to the idea that the residents of Mars were able to escape from a bunch of terrorists by putting on what amounted to be a bunch of arctic clothing (Heavy Parkas, a few layers of socks, and other cold weather gear) along with an oxygen mask. An important distinction is that KSR also had at that point in the books a significant terraforming project on Mars which had put approximately 200-300 millibars of pressure into the Martian atmosphere. It wasn't perfect, but it was survivable. It was enough air pressure that lichens and a few genetically engineered plants could survive on the surface of Mars exposed directly to the global environment. In that chapter the residents of a major city migrated a couple hundred miles across the surface by foot before they got to their refuge area. It was a fun part of the story to read though.

Re:Mars does have air pressure

[Anonymous Coward]

Your skin is pretty resilient to pressure, so you can survive (briefly) in a vacuum if necessary. The scene in Titan A.E. where the protagonist busts out the cockpit window and uses a fire extinguisher for propulsion to flying through space without a spacesuit is at least somewhat realistic and could in theory actually happen... assuming you could get into an air lock under a minute or so and get it to quick repressurize so you could catch a breath of air. You would be in pain, but still be alive.

You can survive for 1, maybe 2 minutes without lasting damage. But you lose consciousness in 10-15 seconds, because your lungs are void of oxygen. Even though "used" blood returning to your lungs still has ~75% oxygenated, that oxygen leaves your blood (and gets sucked out your windpipe). Not at all like exhaling and holding your empty breath, because there the residual air in your lungs always has at least enough oxygen to be equilibrium with your blood, so it recirculates at low oxygen content instead of being stripped to nothing.

Basically, on the surface of Mars, you could in theory run between two different buildings a few dozen meters apart without a space suit using the same principle. In an emergency, there at least would be a high probability of survival even if it isn't something recommended. It would be sort of like swimming a few dozen meters underwater and holding your breath the whole time.

No, because there is no holding your breath against 3-4 psi -- the air will be sucked from your lungs. You were evolved (and/or designed by FSM) to deal with only neutral or positive external pressure, because there's no situation on Earth (before the industrial revolution) you can experience negative external pressure. (Since then, we have coming up from a dive with pressurized air, losing pressurization in an aircraft at altitude, or the one that made me say industrial revolution -- pneumatic caisson accidents. But these all, except aircraft at extreme height, leave you with a remnant of oxygen-containing air, preventing the prompt hypoxia explained above.)

Re:Mars does have air pressure

[Grishnakh]

They had a scene like this in 2001: A Space Odyssey too; Bowman had to go from his small ship to an airlock on the Discovery without a suit. The whole process only took a few seconds though. I think the biggest problem is that the small blood vessels on your eyeballs will burst, but they'll heal.

Re:Mars does have air pressure

[Jarik C-Bol]

You are right, the effects of a vacuum are vastly overblown in movies and books. The first thing i looked up when i saw the comment about punctures in the summary was this http://www.geoffreylandis.com/vacuum.html which includes a bit describing when one of our astronauts had a 1/16th inch hole punched through his suits glove. The same page goes into some details on the effects of vacuum on people.
part of people's problem with vacuum, is they seem to mentally correlate it with pressure like on a submarine. In a submarine, at depth, you have thousands of pounds of pressure pressing inward on the hull, and a puncture is catastrophic, a needle of water that can cut like a razor. people mentaly invert this situation when thinking of vacuum. They assume the same is true, only in reverse.
The truth is, the difference in pressure between the inside of a space craft, and the outside vacuum is more or less 1 atmosphere. That is a *tiny* amount of force. which is why they could build the lunar lander walls 'the thickness of a couple sheets of tin foil'.
the reason our current suits are so bulky is not mainly for puncture prevention (although there is some of that) its largely for insulation/radiation barrier. and to cover the large amount of weird gear that the astronauts wear to stay at a safe temperature. a suit of underwear with tubing knitted in that carries liquid that is either warmed or cooled, depending on what the need is, among other things.

Close, but no cigar.

[Anonymous Coward]

While an easily patchable suit seems like a great idea, what we really need is a suit that patches itself. Astronauts may not be able to see or reach the site of a suit puncture, in which case their screwed. A suit that has some sort of self-sealing properties or maybe with a thin layer of that green goop used to seal bicycle tires from punctures would be a better idea IMO.

Re:Careful tiger,

[ravenspear]

NASA contracted the space suit for the Apollo program to the firms Hamilton Standard and International Latex Corporation.

"Magic happens"

[SuperBanana]

I love the diagram on her site where they break down the layers:
"Temperature and moisture control".
Remember the Far Side cartoon where two scientists are staring at a chalkboard and "magic happens" is written in the middle? Yeeeeaaaaaaaah.

Newman needs to spend less time showing herself off wearing mockups and playing celebrity space cadet - and more time actually working on the practical problems. A significant amount of sweat is generated by the body even under light exertion. Moderate exertion is even worse. For example, when cycling in comfortable summer temperatures, it's easy to go through a litre of water or more every hour.

There's also the problem of insulation from temperatures ranging from as high as 31 degrees below freezing, to -161 degrees F. That's roughly the temperature where carbon dioxide precipitates into a solid, folks.

Re:Careful tiger,

[cusco]

spacesuit designs have already been made in previous flights by at least three different nations

Yes, and all of them suck to one extent or another. The suit is one of the main reasons why EVAs are very limited in duration, they spend a lot of their energy fighting against the suit to move. Colonists, as opposed to explorers, need something that can be worn for most of a day without exhausting the wearer. They'll probably never get as easy as the zip-up space suit with the bubble helmet of Buck Rogers, but there's a lot of room for improvement.

Re:More Space Nutter delusion

[cusco]

There's only one way to learn how to build a colony in space; do it. Science is a great reason to do so, but merely the possibility of expanding off a single planet and into the universe should be reason enough.

Re:Careful tiger,

[Grishnakh]

Not feasible. Sure, the goal should be to build a giant bubble or dome for them to live in, but 1) there's going to be some time until they get that thing built and ready to inhabit, and you'll need construction workers walking around outside to get it built, and 2) the Mars base isn't going to be a place for people to just stay inside all day long and telecommute, they're going to need to go out in the field at some point to do work, whether it's checking out sites for geology studies or figuring out where they're going to build a new wing for the Mars base and doing the construction work for that.