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Boeing Unveils New NASA Spacesuits For Starliner Austronaut Taxi (space.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Space.com: The NASA astronauts who fly aboard Boeing's new spaceship will wear sleek, blue suits that are lighter, simpler and more comfortable than the bulky orange gear of the space shuttle era, company representatives said. Unveiled today (Jan. 25), the new "Boeing Blue" spacesuits for the Starliner capsule weigh about 20 lbs. (9 kilograms) each with all of their accessories, compared to 30 lbs. (13.6 kg) for the old space shuttle suits, NASA officials said. Other advances include touch-screen-sensitive gloves, more-flexible material and soft helmets that are incorporated into the suit (rather than the hard, detachable helmets of the shuttle era). The Boeing Blue suit, and the one that SpaceX develops, will help keep astronauts safe in the event of an emergency during trips to and from orbit. The suits are not designed for spacewalks; the large, bulky "extravehicular mobility units" that astronauts use for this latter purpose are already aboard the ISS. "The spacesuit acts as the emergency backup to the spacecraft's redundant life-support systems," Richard Watson, subsystem manager for spacesuits in NASA's Commercial Crew Program, said in the same statement. "If everything goes perfectly on a mission, then you don't need a spacesuit. It's like having a fire extinguisher close by in the cockpit. You need it to be effective if it is needed." You can view pictures of the spacesuits here.
On the Lexx?
Hey, they left the fly of of the men's suits.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
We finally have good-guy versions of the term again!
they look more like bio-hazard suits, are these capable of protecting us in a vacuum ?
Isn't an Austronaut someone visiting Austria? Are they planning on skiing?
Sources could not confirm whether taking the taxi would land you on an Alp meadow, or among the kangaroos.
what will they think of next
Next time they might want to consider hiring a professional seamstress.
:T:R:A:N:S:
That guy is totally cosplaying Benny from The LEGO Movie
So how soon before ordinary redneck slobs can pull on a red suit
They're workin' on those but they'll only fit a true, hot-headed Southerner - there's a lot less room in the crotch.
Looks like a great improvement over what they had before.
But there might be room for checking the details.
Fix the 'Helps me hide in the ocean' blue.
Show some movies with the arms and legs flexing many times under pressure without the occupant getting tired.
Show some movies of a person putting on and taking off the suit with and without help.
Show what happens when you bump the open visor into something hard.
Perhaps let some military or test pilots try them out in some high altitude, non-pressurized airplanes.
The soft helmets are a cool idea. But when they're unzipped, as you can see in the many photos with the helmets at that pose, there's a lot of stress at the zipper. That's going to be a failure point, just like it is on your luggage. I'm surprised that there isn't a better solution for that.
That said, it took me all of 10 seconds to see that, and the folks at Boeing aren't idiots, so I hope they have tested the hinging of their zippers!
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
Which of their aircraft have bad safety records?
The Boeing Blue suit, and the one that SpaceX develops, will help keep astronauts safe in the event of an emergency during trips to and from orbit. The suits are not designed for spacewalks
But what if the astronauts need to perform a spacewalk in the event of an emergency?!??
For example, in the STS-27 mission, the spacecraft was damaged during takeoff, and an inspection of the craft's exterior needed to be performed before returning to Earth. In this case, the inspection could be performed using a robotic arm. But it is not difficult to imagine a situation where inspection and/or repair might require a human spacewalk.
you're very welcome
Benny!
They have zippers which means the Amish won't be able to use them. Boeing has set themselves up for a huge lawsuit...
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
The next generation of spacesuits will be constructed of a fancy, high-tech "polyester-cotton blend", they will be fastened with "buttons, zippers, and/or Vel-Cro", and be available in "a wide array of colors and sizes".
They will be much sought after for their ability to be the foundation for numerous mission and space badges.
These nex-gen suits will be comfortable, light-weight, fashionable and perfect mission souvenirs. They won't do much to keep you warm, or breathing, or alive, but oh man do they look good!
Nasa used white suits in the Apollo era for two reasons: (1) that was the color of the flame-proof Beta Cloth and (b) it would reflect a lot of light (and thus heat) when exposed to direct sunlight in space. These Apollo suits were actually very complex pressure-holding garments with bellows at the joints and springs and cables etc and the white part of the suit we all saw on TV was just an outer garment that protected the actual functional layers. These suits were designed to not only be used in the spacecraft, but also to be used during multi-hour productive EVA and lunar surface activities.
The Orange suits of the Shuttle era were avery different thing. They started being used after the Challenger was lost and were derived from SR-71 pilot suits which are primarily there to safe a life if the cabin depressurizes. The orange color wasan international rescue color intended to make it easier to find crew members who might bail out of a crippled orbiter and might be bobbing in the sea. They were far less complex than the Apollo suits and were not suitable for EVA activities in space - they were there only as safety equipment and, when inflated, would have been very hard to work in.
These new Boeing suits are, like SpaceX's equivalents will be, like the Orange shuttle suits in that they are not generally going to be inflated and willbe there just to save lives should the vehicle be damaged and lose pressure. When inflated, they will keep the wearer alive but will not provide great mobility,and are not for spacewalks. There's little need for a 21st century suit to be any particular color, since modern tech will allow and fabrics used to be nearly any stylish color, and radio transponders to be on each astronaut.
When you inflate any structure, it becomes rigid and tries to assume whatever shape it has that provides maximum volume for the inflating gas. Any attempt to bend the inflated structure in a way that reduces the gas volume will require effort to overcome the pounds-per-square-inch of pressure, which means it takes serious work for an astronaut to bend an elbow or knee or finger in a space suit and that's why so much effort is put into designing a suit like the Apollo suit or an EVA suit for Shuttle or ISS that will be used to work in space. All that is not required for an emergency suit that will be designed to be rigid in the seated shape and will be used just for a leaky cabin event.
I'm not sure where your hanging out, but we're getting real close to sexbots right now.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
You're welcome Boeing for those $13bn tax breaks!
I'm glad it worked out! Next, how much are you gonna sell those spacesuits to us for??
Well. Try rape. Its easy and great fun. Once you try rape, you'll like grape ape.
We still use those Satilllite things right?
I really want to know how they made space-proof zippers for the soft helmets. I have waterproof zippers on camping gear... I bet they're similar, but the space-proof ones probably use magnets. Everything works better in space with magnets.