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Elon Musk Posts First Photo of SpaceX's New Spacesuit (arstechnica.com)
Early Wednesday morning, SpaceX founder Elon Musk posted a photo of the spacesuit that will be used by astronauts flying aboard the company's Dragon spacecraft, perhaps as early as next year. Ars Technica reports: In his Instagram post, Musk added that this suit was not a mock-up but rather a fully functional unit. "Already tested to double vacuum pressure," he wrote. "Was incredibly hard to balance aesthetics and function. Easy to do either separately." (Double vacuum pressure simply means the suit was probably inflated to twice the pressure of sea level and then put into a vacuum chamber.) Musk gave no other technical information about the suit. Most strikingly, it is white, in contrast to the very blue spacesuits unveiled by Boeing in January. These are not, strictly speaking, "space suits." Rather, they are more properly flight suits designed to be worn during the ride to space and again on the ride back down to Earth. They have a limited time in which they can operate in a full vacuum and are not intended for spacewalks.
These are not, strictly speaking, "space suits." Rather, they are more properly flight suits designed to be worn during the ride to space and again on the ride back down to Earth. They have a limited time in which they can operate in a full vacuum and are not intended for spacewalks.
So call the flight suit a flight suit. Different tools are for different jobs, and giving them a distinct name helps to avoid confusion.
That's just the currently selected layout for the built-in keyboard.
Not sure how it looks inflated but it certainly looks like a motorcycle outfit.
I do like the fact it has an actual helmet, unlike the blue suit which looks like a completely "rollupable" uprated biohazard suit. Keep in mind these are just "pressure suits", not "space suits"
Then let the Elon Musk bashing begin!
It's been the favourite pastime for trolls on Slashdot these last years, after all.
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
I mean, it's function is to keep you alive. There's no _balance_ in that, that's a zero fail mission. Balance implies trade offs. By definition this is one of those times you can't take away from B for A... at all. If there's _room_ for A, sure make some A... but leave B the fuck alone.
it's a flight suit.
not a space suit.
as far as hoses, I suppose it's hidden somewhere. since it's not for space walks and is just for sitting down basically while in flight to protect you if pressure drops or something.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
...to go into orbit, and not to a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, why should one care about aestethics ?
Sure. the question is : would it be hygienic if you did?
Can you choose Klingon? tlho'!
Ezekiel 23:20
Look pretty awesome.
You mean like rocket first stages landing safely at a specific location in a way conducive to being reused ? Or perhaps electric cars that you can buy right now? Maybe home power storage solutions?
Sure, he might not have all his projects finished yet, but he's certainly delivering a hell of a lot more than most big-talkers.
Wow, better warn SpaceX of their horrible oversight! I'm sure nobody at SpaceX thought of ensuring mobility during their design and testing phases, and I'm sure NASA does not have any mobility requirements - better warn them both, stat! Thank you, Anonymous Coward, for saving the space program!
Ever since, I've been suspicious of Jesus and very careful around chlorine.
Actually, when your goal is to make space travel mass market, making things aesthetically appealing is a key aspect. Musk's goal is not and never has been $25m trips to space for the select few; he wants to make space travel a common occurrence.
As for "solid spacesuit", I assume you mean like the NASA AX series, which are built more like atmospheric diving suits than traditional space suits. And the answer is the same reason why NASA doesn't use them - while mobility in them is superb, they're significantly heavier. About the only place in the solar system where it makes sense to use them at present (in combination with insulation and either a heat-absorbing material (akin to Venera) or a heat pump with cooling channels, and a bellows balloon) is the surface of Venus. A more popular research topic is hybrid pressure / hard suits, where you have certain parts rigid (such as the torso) and others inflated.
Ever since, I've been suspicious of Jesus and very careful around chlorine.
Outside is vacuum, inside is double pressure.
Ever since, I've been suspicious of Jesus and very careful around chlorine.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has nothing to do with Musk. More to the point, the only thing Musk initially stated about Hyperloop that he's now starting to go back on was that he wasn't going to get personally involved with it.
Ever since, I've been suspicious of Jesus and very careful around chlorine.
Why shouldn't you be able to? I doubt that the way to keep the suit in place is that invasive that you can't squeeze one out.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I'm curious about the part "hard to balance aesthetics and function". How will it look like? Space Marine Power Armor? Exo-skeleton? Really curious to see.
.. and that's because if you were running forward with a flag on a pole, the flag would be appear "backwards" from this side - as the pole would of course be at the front and the stars are nearest the pole.
Do they plan to send the Stig up? Surely he's want a British flag??
And a tinted visor. Also could they send Jeremy Clarkson up and leave him there for the sake of humanity!
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
Why would you bother to put it in a vac chamber? All pressures are relative. Pressurize the suit to 3X.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I think there's a serious point here ... what does the casual space traveller do if caught short in space? Will there be air-locked loos where you can take of the suit safely to pee or crap? Sounds expensive
Time for bed, said Zebedee - boing
The rocket I saw land in Florida sure looked real , tell me more internet keyboard flat earther!
If cabin pressure drops, the suit balloons up and makes it hard to move. An excellent way to counter this is by simply leaving less air in the suit, i.e. make it skintight. It's a shame they didn't do this; I was rather looking forward to our glorious future society where everyone walks around in skintight suits...
It's not that simple. Materials can behave differently in a vacuum than they do at atmospheric pressure.
Ever since, I've been suspicious of Jesus and very careful around chlorine.
I think this flight suit was tested in Space 1999...
it's a flight suit.
not a space suit.
as far as hoses, I suppose it's hidden somewhere. since it's not for space walks and is just for sitting down basically while in flight to protect you if pressure drops or something.
But it does not have huge padded shoulders and epaulets! Cryst, a million sci-fi moves and television shows tell us that it has to have huge padded shoulders and epaulets!
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
He's like a car salesman that starts by showing you the cup holders.
He promises us the Hyperloop, then shows us the inside of its cabin.
He promises human flight to the ISS, then shows us the space, oh wait, I mean flight suit, that will be worn by travelers.
When will he show us what he promised to show us?
If every company showed nothing until everything was done we'd have quite a boring (and probably poor performing) market. This stuff, the sneak peaks, gets people excited about things now and makes them eager to see more. That's how it always works, I'm sure you weren't born yesterday? Instead of criticizing them for not delivering human space flight ahead of schedule, save your criticism for next year when they fail to meet their actual '18 Q2 delivery time. Then you'll actually have some ground to stand on!
I'm skeptical that *any* space suit is a part of a mass market space travel future.. So long as there is a risk of decompression severe enough to warrant the precaution of wearing a spacesuit, I don't see it as being a 'common occurance'.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
My armchair has a NASA sticker on it! My bed is also in the shape of a rocket ship.
Whose the expert now? Check mate atheists.
On this particular point, I think I can be sympathetic. He's talking to the media and wanting this consumed by people who are likely to hear 'two atmospheres? that's crazy there's no atmosphere in space, is he an idiot?'.
Meanwhile, the people who know that to be inappropriate phrasing quickly knew what he was trying to say.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
>Everybody knows that a space suit should have a flag I disagree strongly. we nearly rid ourselves of religion. we need to put this divisive nazi-onalistic bullshit behind us as well.
Bullshit? Then what would we be defined (i used the word defined loosely) by then? private enterprise? GDP? National debt? An arbitrary symbol? (what the Nazis in fact used)
This is my sig, there are many like it but this one is mine
This isn't a "space suit" it is a "flight suit". These will only be used during transport to and from orbit. They are not intended to be used for extended space walks. For space walks you would need the bulkier suits.
"But we made ours with a special rabbit ear on the top so we could pipe in some music." -- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is a 2004 film starring Bill Murray as eccentric oceanographer Steve Zissou
Or the Dragon cargo capsule that the crew capsule is based on, making deliveries to the ISS?
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
NASA produced a book some few years ago on the history of flight suits called Dressing for Altitude. It's not the world's most riveting read, but it is freely available online and it may (somewhat ironically) have the best design and typography of any book I've read.
Also in a similarly space-related bent, if anyone here has not read John Clark's Ignition! then they should certainly do so. The subtitle of the book should probably be "The secret history of rocket fuel", but the author went for "An informal history of liquid rocket propellants" instead.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
Elon Musk or Daft Punk?
Hey, Windows users, there is no such thing as "forward" slash, there is only slash and backslash.
Looks like a prototype for Stormtrooper armor.
Galactic Empire confirmed!
The American flag is put on with stars forwards. That way, it is 'not in retreat'. Of course, these days, not sure that is the case.
However, the flag will be replaced with whatever nation the suit owner has. Canadian flag for Canadian owner. etc. etc. And right now, that suit is targeted to NASA.
Also, the connections tend to be on the lower left-hand side.
Finally, look again at that material. I think that it is type of pleather, perhaps the same stuff that is now in tesla seats. If so, it is VERY strong and very rip/cut safe. In fact, the 'pleather' in Tesla only comes in white and black at this time, so, I really think that is the case.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
baloney.
When all nations are no longer in a cold/hot war and all contribute equally, then it is fine.
BUT, with China in a major cold war with the west ( and winning it on the economic front), it makes little sense to NOT take some pride.
As it is, ALL NATIONS display their flags. It seems like AMerica tends to be the one hit over the head for doing what everybody else is doing.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
fucking idiots like you do not read or understand history. NAZIs were socialist in name only. They were a FAR RIGHT group, even by Hitlers words.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
huh. So, what nations have gotten rid of their nationalism?
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Since these will be used for the short vanity flight of the very rich, can we not call them astronauts and, instead, call them Space Douches, or something else?
That being said, this looks like a flight suit and doesn't look very realistic as a space suit. Where are the hose connections? How do you scratch your nose? Hydration? Visor for sunlight? I suspect the actual suit is much less "sleek" when ready for a spacewalk (also, if the shoulders really are that small, I'd love to know how he manages constant volume).
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Actually, when your goal is to make space travel mass market, making things aesthetically appealing is a key aspect. Musk's goal is not and never has been $25m trips to space for the select few; he wants to make space travel a common occurrence.
As for "solid spacesuit", I assume you mean like the NASA AX series, which are built more like atmospheric diving suits than traditional space suits. And the answer is the same reason why NASA doesn't use them - while mobility in them is superb, they're significantly heavier. About the only place in the solar system where it makes sense to use them at present (in combination with insulation and either a heat-absorbing material (akin to Venera) or a heat pump with cooling channels, and a bellows balloon) is the surface of Venus. A more popular research topic is hybrid pressure / hard suits, where you have certain parts rigid (such as the torso) and others inflated.
Well, here's the answer to the question I wanted to ask.
Still, I'm surprised that so much energy was put on aesthetic. I mean, how could you make a freaking "space/flight suit" unaesthetic? Even the original NASA space suit is so cool that people bring it at hockey games.
Elok
And yet, I rode a vehicle to work today that is so dangerous the law requires me to wear a helmet. I saw two other people on the road on my way in riding the same sort of vehicle.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
Well also, if you told someone that the suit was "tested to two atmospheres", I would expect some people might understand that to mean that the suit is able to maintain integrity when two atmospheres of pressure are on the outside of it. It makes sense to try to make a distinction and say that they tested it in a vacuum, but tested with greater pressure inside than would normally be necessary.
I don't know if there's a more commonly accepted way of making that distinction, but it makes sense to me that someone would want to make that distinction.
I'm pretty sure that the flag is necessary according to both the Geneva Convention (since it is technically a government uniform) and it is also needed according to the Outer Space Treaty in terms of what country is responsible for that astronaut's actions. It is legally required by international law and conventions of space travel.
Nope, that is the final design, minus a few tweaks. SpaceX engineers have actually been wearing it for human factors design tests.
The promise wasn't simply self-landing first-stage rockets. It was a commitment to provide low cost orbital launch vehicles and responsive launch services, on a recurring basis, using a mature vehicle design and a commercially derived booster to meet mission/payload requirements. (2005) It's safe to say that that expectation hasn't been met (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches#Past_launches).
... because there's no way in Hell that Tony Stark would believe that boring holes under a metropolis or the hyperloop would EVER actually work. Those ideas are guaranteed vaporware.
The promise wasn't "electric cars that you can buy now", it was "electric cars that anyone can afford funded by electric sports cars for the rich". That didn't happen. The public funded the subsidization of the electric sports cars and the "affordable" EV is happening as the result of massive public and private investment. And the affordable vehicle won't even have the features promised.
Home power storage solutions was never a promise because we have still yet to approach the point where people NEED to store their own power. It's a solution for a problem that doesn't exist and has come as a side-effect of Tesla needing to source their own batteries (and thus have a battery factory) and then sell the batteries they'll over-produce.
Someone mentioned solar roof tiles. Those still aren't here yet and they won't ever be at the price of replacing a roof outright as promised. It will only be comparable in price when you factor in receiving all possible incentives (in the long run) and the irrational idea of financing a $7,500 roof with a 30-year loan (thus artificially increasing the cost of a regular roof). It's all here: https://www.tesla.com/solarroo... . And even then, it's not likely going to be the whole roof full of tiles.
Here's the thing-- I don't think these projects will fail in the long run. I know that the private transportation of goods to space is a current reality and it will only improve with time. I know that EVs (or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles) are the future of private transportation. I know that we'll eventually have a majority of autonomous vehicles on the road. I know that when we move more towards ubiquitous solar (were sensible) and wind, we'll need better ways of storing energy to deal with grid spikes and valleys. But it won't be nearly as quick as Musk says and it won't be nearly as cheap. Someone has to pay and even if it's not out of pocket for you right now, you're likely paying for it in your taxes via subsidies. Musk isn't a financial or technological genius. He's not the scientist or researcher making these things happen. He's not Tony Stark. He's an ideas guy and a hype-man.
NASA funded development of the falcon 9 and dragon and are currently funding development of the dragon 2. They are also the largest single buyer of the falcon 9 and the only buyer so far for the dragon capsule.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
Right there you can tell they haven't got a clue. Aesthetics are completely irrelevant
They are intending to bring space travel to the ultra rich. They understand their market far better than you do.
I'm skeptical that *any* space suit is a part of a mass market space travel future..
The market is already there, the only question is price. You can already pre-order a flight on Virgin Galactic, and from what I call a few rich people already have.
He(?) is right you know. If you'd bothered to read any number of other replies to this topic this isn't a space suit, it can't work as a space suit and so the AC you replied to is right. There are a lot of problems with this design if it was intended to be a space suit (which it isn't) but it's still PR-ojected as being one. False news in other words.
There are some ideas that maybe some day may make slimmer space suits possible but not today and probably not from SpaceX.
Well a proper space suit is essentially a house for the body so suite maybe correct in a way...
I would say: "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's" - though I want to avoid religious connotation hence I would be categorized as a Elon-wanker. ;-)
But give to the man what he deserves, and he deserves at least some small praise. That some un-rightfully praise him into heavens is not his fault, and doesn't mean he deserves to be un-rightfully bashed neither. He's not at fault for wankers, nor for slashdot-stories, so I fail to see the logic why it would be justified to bash him without reason; it's as silly as blindly idolizing him without reason. Silliness and irrationality is not made less by adding silliness and irrationality. Both are sides immature in that case.
The most mature thing, is to be rational about things and evaluate it properly. This means acknowledging he has his faults, but also that he has accomplished some good things.
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
Clarkson would not fit in this suit but send him up anyway. The windbag will provide an auxillary propulsion source.
New Zealanders are well balanced with a chip on each shoulder. One represents Australia, the other the rest of the world
why does it need to show a flag?
So they know where to mail the body once it's found floating in the ocean?
So they have some idea on what language the wearer speaks if they land far off target?
So they don't get shot/hanged as a spy if they land far off target? (Not that it'd save them universally but wearing a country identifier does conform to international laws on things like piracy, spies, and such.)
Because decades of seeing pictures of government funded astronauts wearing flags on their spacesuits people expect flags on spacesuits? In other words, marketing.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
Isn't it also supposed to have a health readout on a chest plate and/or armband? How else are people supposed to know that the air runs out in 24 minutes but there's 28 minutes before they land and it's safe to open the hatch?
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
Isn't it also supposed to have a health readout on a chest plate and/or armband? How else are people supposed to know that the air runs out in 24 minutes but there's 28 minutes before they land and it's safe to open the hatch?
Oh, they'll know. At least 4 minutes before landing. That's calle "just in time expiration".
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
It made me wonder what your toilet looks like.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - Jiddu Krishnamurti
Diaper. I am also an armchair astronaut.