The Evolution of Space Suit Design 304
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..."
About time.. (Score:5, Interesting)
I was actually just watching an IMAX Nasa special the other day and was shocked to hear that the current space suits weigh in at almost 250lbs!! I know that without gravity, it doesn't matter how much you weigh, but the bulk in those suits seriously made it hard for the astronauts to do their job at times.
A new "second skin" version of the suit would certainly make it easier on the astronauts, and would free up a ton of space for hauling more cargo up there as well.
On a side note, Nasa was testing this cool 100ft solar array in the movie, which when folded up fit into a 7 inch tall box! It was pretty cool.
Re:Slice and dice (Score:3, Interesting)
"Incorporated into that second skin would be electrically actuated artificial muscle fibers to enhance human strength and stamina."
Seriously, though: just looking at how difficult large-scale human-assisting robotics has been to produce without it underreacting or overreacting, I don't hold out much hope of seing this sort of thing any time soon.
Re:Going to Mars? (Score:3, Interesting)
Mars, on the other hand, is months away, which poses far bigger problems. We'll solve them eventually, of course, but it is a significantly bigger deal.
Itchy Nose. (Score:3, Interesting)
What if I get an itchy nose?
I know it sounds silly, but I'm serious. I can imagine getting a serious, claustrophobic panic attack in one of those things, of something as minor as that. Being trapped in this thing and unable to take it off.
There's a lot of bits in that 250 pounds (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Radiation protection (Score:2, Interesting)
The thin 'second skin' is augmented by a hard torso shell, and the oxygen seems to go in tubes, most likely these will also be reinforced, so ripping or tearing does not seem very likely.
I get a mental image of something like an Imperial Stormtrooper , IIRC the costume was something like a scuba suit underneath with white plastic 'armor' on top..
Hmm, possibly George Lucas can get 'prior art' on this..:)
Re:Slice and dice (Score:3, Interesting)
This leaves a lot of questions open (how to handle cross-talk, for instance), but is how I first thought of things. They're talking about this kind of thing being perhaps decades away, and unlikely to appear in the next few years. One day, we'll look back on astronauts in current spacesuits the way we look at warriors in plate armor: bulky and inefficient suits worn by people dedicated and brave enough to train to face the unknown with primitive technology.
Re:Mission To Mars (Score:2, Interesting)
Strong government investment in space flight won't return unless:
-Private space flight becomes much larger
OR
-China continues to significantly expand its plan for space exploration and manages to put several men on the moon themselves in the coming years.
Re:Mission To Mars (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah: like cutting Hubble. And racking up record defecits while privately funded firms remind us what the excitement of space exploration used to be all about.
If Bush really wanted to show some leadership, he'd splash ISS, scrap the Shuttle, and set some realistic short-term goals that his administration would actually have to pay for.
NASA *is* doing great work with its robotic programs. But most of those programs were green-lighted when President W was still back in Texas making his bones by polluting his state and signing 152 death warrants.
Feel free to mod me down, Republican bastards. ;-)
Re:About time.. (Score:3, Interesting)
From the article (Score:4, Interesting)
Right - this technology is WAY far away. Synthetic muscle fibers have been under development for the last decade. One of the first innovations were Contractle Polymers. These have since given way to other technologies - but non yet equal the strength of human muscle. In addition to make them more useful, these fibers are going to have to be multiples of the strength of human muscle. Also, the notion of a "spray on" skin that creates a powered exomuscular infrastructure requires a fusing of so many current and future technologies that this is not a particularly realistic goal at this time.
I think what i'm trying to say - this isn't news it's a dream. Obviously people need to figure it out - but there are not going to be tangible results from such research for sometime.
My favorite space apparel... (Score:2, Interesting)
Is the peacekeeper spacesuits from Farscape.
They're black - instantly cool but probably a problem to spot your mate when his dark face shield is closed - the helmet is just barely bigger than your head - so you don't go knocking your noggin on stuff cause you forgot - and all the fastenings had that appearance of being sturdy and functional without taking ages to fiddle with.
They weren't skin tight, more like about how baggy a tracksuit is on a regular sized person, but they weren't overly bulky either. The costume designers even made sure to put small "life support" systems on the backs of the suits too, and although they only looked big enough to scrub CO2 for maybe 30-45 minutes, I imagine something slightly bigger could be made, or have hook-up points on the suit and ship for extended EVA.
It would have been good to find an interview with Claudia Black or Ben Browder that asked if the general design of the mock-up suits was comfortable.
Skin tight is functional, but I can see personal aesthetics screwing with the crew - we're only human, and things that shouldn't bother us generally do.
Re:Mission To Mars (Score:1, Interesting)
Quit honestly, it would have better had we gone to Mars. It would have cost a fraction of what Iraq has cost. We have already spent about 155B (that is billion, not million) on Iraq and he is asking for 80B more (just for this year). It would have been better for America (but not likely to find oil there, so we do not go).
Perfect target for Centennial Challenges prizes (Score:4, Interesting)
An even more specific goal is a better astronaut glove. Gloves sound like very simple things, but it's been pretty tricky so far to create a glove which can reliably remain intact in a vacuum while also giving the user a good degree of manual dexterity. A space policy analyst said the following in an article [foxnews.com]:
In fact, the glove is the biggest problem in designing the high-pressure space suits necessary to avoid the bends (the same problem a diver has when she surfaces too quickly) when an astronaut goes out into the vacuum of space. Larger joints like shoulders and knees have special designs that are zero-volume change, but no one has yet miniaturized such a design to finger joints.
Because this is a critical technology, and one that has great leverage in influencing launch system trades, I would propose the following:
Build a vacuum glove box with a task box inside (perhaps an automobile engine that has to be dissassembled and reassembled). Put up a purse of a million dollars to the first person who can achieve the task working through gloves under a pressure differential of half an atmosphere, without a break.
Unlike many space activities, it's a project that can be literally done in someone's garage, and it may spur a great amount of innovation for very low cost. Accordingly, it would make an excellent candidate for the Office of Exploration's new prize fund, and I hope they'll strongly consider it. At very low cost to the taxpayers, one or more successful concepts could lay to rest myths about the intrinsic difficulty of working in space, opening up the options for how we will get to the planets beyond redoing Apollo, perhaps saving billions in dollars, and constituting a major step toward becoming a truly spacefaring nation.
It's about time... (Score:2, Interesting)
The spray-on thing may be new, but the idea of a mechanical counter pressure suit isn't.
Jerry Pournelle mentioned a project like this in A Step Farther Out, a collection of science articles related to space travel and other science fiction ideas written in the seventies. He claims that tests of the suit design in actual vacuum conditions were going very well, and then the project got canned for no apparent reason.
I'm glad that it's back in development - I don't think we'd get very far in space relying on clunky armoured suits.
On a side note, it's very amusing how many people have bizarre misconceptions of the effects of vacuum on the human body, thanks to godawful movie "science".
Re:There's a lot of bits in that 250 pounds (Score:3, Interesting)
Also the heat sink would be pure radiative source, no convection, so you'd have to take that into account.
Mycroft