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..."

Radiation protection

[syousef]

A thin layer of biomaterial may be sufficient for protecting you from the vacuum of space if they get around the engineering considerations, but I for one would not want a "second skin" as my only protection from radiation and cosmic rays.

This is a consideration particularly where there is no atmosphere absorbing any of it before it gets to you (eg the moon and Earth orbit). The Earth also has its magnetic field helping shield us.

Also consider that the thinnner and lighter a material is the more likely a rip becomes. That one rip will easily end your life. You'd need to incorporate a system self repair of small holes and tears - perhaps a gluey substance that seals under pressure.

Re:Mission To Mars

[burns210]

Just because he announced a plan doesn't mean anything. NASA isn't getting the funding(it needs massive increasesm not cutbacks) to actually DO any of the things talked about.

How much disinfo is out there?

[thogard]

If you read official NASA stuff, you will find that the space suits are there to keep the guys warm in the cold of space. That is total BS. Put a self warming thing in a perfect insulator and what happens? It gets hot. It turns out that since the Russians haven't figured out how to make peltier effect space suits, that many of the details of the Apollo era suits are still secret. Even some of the details of early astronaut almost dying from dehydrating in their suits haven't been released

One of the other things is that your blood will boil or explode in space. Thats not true either. All thats needed to protect the skin is a thin layer of something like a cheap wet suit. There have been studies that show thick rubber gloves would work fine for the pressure if there was a way to get rid of the sweat.

The real mechanical problem is keeping the head protected along with proper containment of everything the body is trying to get rid of.

Of course the real problem is all that radiation.

Re:Mission To Mars

[FleaPlus]

Thanks to the strong leadership of President Bush, we have a real plan for space, as opposed to mostly circling around Earth currently.

Unfortunately, because it's been announced by President Bush, many people who oppose his other policies (for good reason) will also tend to oppose his space policy, even if they would support it if it were proposed by somebody else.

Re:Earth to Space Cadets, Reality for you on line

[fiannaFailMan]

Yeah, and those people who dreamed up a computer smaller than ten feet by ten and weighing less than two tonnes. What were they thinking?

Re:Mission To Mars

[Bad D.N.A.]

What Bush has done is decimate the scientific programs of NASA and had the agency over to the aerospace lobby. But with comments like...

"mostly circling around Earth"

you have made your impression of science apparent

Did you know that the "science of the outer planets" scientific research line for 2005
Was just cut? Yup, wiped off the board. This was a small program, only a few million, and it funded some very interesting work... Well, it's gone now, I guess that makes you feel very patriotic...

"God Bless America"... indeed

Re:These pictures get worse and worse.

[Anonymous Coward]

Especially with the help of Tinyurl [tinyurl.com]...

Re:About time..

[Anonymous Coward]

Quite true. I made some 'medieval armour' and the first question I always get is about its weight (well, some ask if they can stab me with a knife, but I meant semi-normal people), I usually wear it without any padding because of the heat, and even then it takes a whole day of walking around with the thing for me to get slightly sore. Oh, and it's not even a good design, which would use several resting points instead of just the shoulders like mine.

Yea, right

[real gumby]

C'mon guys, this isn't news. It isn't even a press release purporting to be news. It's just a gee-whizz-somebody-is-doing-research-on-an-idea news. It's so far away from being news that when it finally is, years or even decades from now, you won't be able to recogize the connection.

Let's leave this stuff unread in in Popular Science or Technology Review where it belongs.

Re:About time..

[Pig Hogger]

Er, no. Ice on a lake is covered by snow, through which you have to walk...

And when you walk back, you're wet and dripping (and the water freezes on your suit which becomes rigid) and the water makes the snow stick on you and you end up with huge snowboots that become heavier with each step...

It's a good thing it's fun, otherwise I wouldn't do it... :)

Re:How much disinfo is out there?

[clean_stoner]

If you read official NASA stuff, you will find that the space suits are there to keep the guys warm in the cold of space.

That's only half correct. The spacesuits are designed to equilize heat distribution. In space any surface exposed to the sun gets very hot very quickly, and any surface in shade gets very cold very quickly. The current space suits have a water heating/cooling system made of many small tubes carrying water that gets heated up on the sun side and carries that warmth to the shade side, where it gets cooled off and flows back to the sun side, repeat ad infinitum.