The Evolution of Space Suit Design

William_Lee writes "According to space.com, it looks like we may finally be on the verge of seeing a long overdue, radical redesign of space suits that will result in much lighter, more maneuverable, custom fitted suits. Now if we can actually get around to sending someone to Mars..."

Re:About time..

[s0m3body]

it DOES matter even in space

being free of gravity does not mean being free of inertia

Years and years and years ago

[multiplexo]

in that lost and far-away decade of the Jerry Pournelle described in an article in Galaxy that was later reprinted in A Step Farther Out some space suit research that David Clark did in the late 1960s. This was for suits that would provide pressure via a skin tight fit. Unfortunately NASA stopped doing this research and stuck with the suits we have today, which are large, cumbersome, heavy and extremely expensive. Pournelle described how these suits would work in a couple of his novels including Birth of Fire and Exiles to Glory, it's nice to see that NASA is now getting their shit together and restarting this research.

Re:How much disinfo is out there?

[thogard]

Your blood won't boil? Bullshit.

The last I knew, the triple point for blood was close to the triple point of water. That means you have to get a very good vacuum. Fragile lung tissue can hold something in the order of two atmospheres for most people (some its as low as .1 which is why you need to exhale while ascending when diving). Maybe you forgot about membrane pressure.

The guy who taught me most of this stuff was a life support system division head during the days Gemini and Apollo.

If your thrown in space, the water in your pores will evaporate and cause frostbite in every pore of your body. The water in your eyes will do the same. As will your nasal cavity and sinuses. So if you can provide a low pressure containment for your head and a way to keep the water in your skin from evaporating quickly, you won't suffer any long term effects.

Ventilated Space Suit

[bluyonder]

Human skin is actually a surprisingly strong pressure barrier. The conterpressure suit can be an open weave with up to millimeter sized openings. The biggest problem is figuring out how to keep pressure on the concave areas such as under the arms and behind the knees. An advantage of counterpressure suits is that a tear in the suit doesn't result in catastrophic pressure loss. It only causes injury to the area of the tear. Another problem with them is getting them on and off. It would be like putting super tight pantyhose over your whole body. (not that I know anything about that)

Here are some papers on counterpressure suits:
http://mvl.mit.edu/EVA/BioSuitDJN_Nov03.pdf [mit.edu]
http://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/publications/ICES02- 2311.pdf [umd.edu]
http://mvl.mit.edu/EVA/NIACPhaseIReport.pdf [mit.edu]