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New NASA Spacesuit Looks Like Buzz Lightyear's

Posted by Soulskill on from the to-copyright-infringement-and-beyond dept.

SternisheFan sends this excerpt from Space.com: It might make the astronaut wearing it look like a real-life Buzz Lightyear, but a new prototype spacesuit that NASA just finished testing represents the first major overhaul in spacesuit technology since 1998. Flexible, white, and lime green accented, the suit — known as the Z-1 — is designed not only to help astronauts comfortably maneuver during spacewalks in microgravity, but also to deftly move about when walking on the surface of a planet or other smaller heavenly body, like an asteroid. [Engineer Amy Ross] said, 'the shuttle EMU splits at the waist and you put pants on and you put the top on separately and they connect in the middle. Whereas with this suit, the subject crawls in through the back, and then we just shut the door.' Creating a back-entry suit solves a few of the problems spacewalkers often face during trips to the International Space Station. Using airlocks to depressurize is a time consuming, exhausting process. By using a back-entry design, the astronauts won't need to go through an airlock at all. The suit hooks up to the outside of the spacecraft using the "space port" opening, and the spacewalker simply climbs in and detaches."

17 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Seriously? Not news by dywolf · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not new news anyway. This is like 6 months old.

    --
    The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
  2. mud room by phrostie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "The suit hooks up to the outside of the spacecraft using the "space port" open"

    what always worried me about this is leaving the suits out exposed and then needing to trust them.
    I hope they atleast use some form of a mud room. unpressurized, but not constantly exposed to radiation and micro metorites.

    just my .2061 USD

    1. Re:mud room by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 3, Informative

      If the suits are hooked up to the spacecraft as specified, it would be rather easy to test the integrity of the suits by inflating them to a specific pressure and waiting to see if the pressure drops. In fact, one could leave them inflated and if the pressure drops the access door won't open.

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      There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
    2. Re:mud room by egcagrac0 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yeah, but a mud room means less patching of holes in the suits, while still being able to do pressure tests.

    3. Re:mud room by Joce640k · · Score: 3, Funny

      Gee, I hope NASA thought of that! Maybe you should call them, just in case...

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      No sig today...
  3. To infinity...... by who_stole_my_kidneys · · Score: 5, Funny

    .....and [Censored by Disney due to copyright infringement]

  4. ...and a dupe by dereference · · Score: 5, Informative

    From July: http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/07/26/2258227/

    1. Re:...and a dupe by cervesaebraciator · · Score: 3, Funny

      Maybe it's a scheme for the karma starved to pick through the comments in the July article and repost Score:5 comments.

    2. Re:...and a dupe by Sarten-X · · Score: 4, Funny

      56k modems in the US are/were limited by FCC regs to about 53k [lowendmac.com].

      From this url [2fords.net]:

      The chilling news came just days before U.S. Robotics shipped its x2 modems: the FCC won't let modems transfer data at a rate faster than 53 kbps. The legal snafu has to do with a long-standing FCC regulation known as Part 68, which was never intended to affect modems. The problem is that if you send too much power through the phone line, your conversation can get loud enough to creep into neighboring lines. This is called crosstalk, and Part 68 was meant to prevent it. But to reach 56 kbps, the new modems must send more power down the line.

      I win, right?

      --
      You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
  5. Great... by Cid+Highwind · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Now if only they had a man-rated spacecraft to put these "space ports" in. Somehow I don't think this is going to be retro-fittable to Soyuz.

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    0 1 - just my two bits
    1. Re:Great... by afidel · · Score: 3, Informative

      Dragon, it has not yet received NASA blessing for manned flight but that's mostly checkboxes. In fact due to the nature of the Falcon 9's Merlin engine it's probably safer than anything NASA has previously man rated. Remember that the Shuttle with a 1% mission failure profile was man rated.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  6. These guys tend to thing about everything... by egcagrac0 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Any word on the purpose of the lime green accents?

    1. Re:These guys tend to thing about everything... by slashmydots · · Score: 4, Funny

      From NASA: "It's to fend off alien predators by confusing them and making it hard to focus their eyes on the suit."

  7. Re:Back entry jokes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    A lot of us women actually enjoy back-entry, thank you very much.

  8. Hollywood by Richy_T · · Score: 3, Funny

    If they're going with Hollywood inspiration, the helmets need to have lights that shine directly into the face of the wearer. You know it makes sense.

  9. Main difference... by Richy_T · · Score: 5, Funny

    When you pull the string, instead of saying "To Infinity and Beyond", it says "To the moon and that's enough for another 40 years or more"

  10. Re:No. by steviesteveo12 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I have a mod stalker who is modding down my past comments and is too much of a cowardly pussy to admit it or face me.

    You should test this theory by making another account.