Next Generation Spacesuit like a Second Skin

[seeder]

Next Generation Spacesuit like Second Skin

Scientists from MIT have designed a next-generation spacesuit that acts practically as a second skin, and could revolutionize the way future astronauts travel into space.

Astronauts are used to climbing into conventional bulky, gas-pressurized spacesuits, but this new design could allow them to travel in style. Soon they may don a lightweight, skintight and stretchy garment lined with tiny, muscle-like coils. Essentially the new suit acts like a giant piece of shrink-wrap, in which the coils contract and tighten when plugged into a power supply, thereby creating a "second skin."

http://newsoffice.mi...spacesuits-0918

.

Edited September 20, 2014 by seeder

[Lioness_Heart]

Sexy!

[toast]

Barbarella is back!

[Waspie_Dwarf]

MIT have been working on this spacesuit for a long time.

Here is a post I made about it back in 2007: Sleek, Skintight Spacesuit Designed

[+OverSword]

Maybe it will look like the suits worn by SHADO in the series UFO

Edited September 21, 2014 by OverSword

[ROGER]

I expect the Z-2 suit will be in service long before this model is created and used . http://www.nasa.gov/...u/#.VB8RjONdXKg

And http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/z2_final_0.png

Edited September 21, 2014 by ROGER

[Cameronesi]

I liked the space suit of the Prometheus space Jockey

[Wickian]

I'm curious if a streamlined suit that like can provide proper protection from radiation.

[Peter B]

I'm curious if a streamlined suit that like can provide proper protection from radiation.

Probably not in that form. It looks like they're only looking at the moment in how to provide pressure to protect the body against the vacuum of space.

But on top of that they're also going to have to look at how to deal with getting rid of body heat. The Mercury and Gemini astronauts had air-cooled suits, and they got into trouble when they over-exerted. The Apollo spacesuits were water-cooled, meaning one of the layers in the spacesuit was a garment containing hundreds of little tubes through which water was pumped. Presumably something like that would have to be incorporated into the design of the suit, meaning that the final design is probably not going to look much like Seven Of Nine's attire... *sigh*

[paperdyer]

From the article link "While skintight spacesuits have been proposed in the past, there’s been one persistent design hurdle: how to squeeze in and out of a pressurized suit that’s engineered to be extremely tight. That’s where shape-memory alloys may provide a solution. Such materials only contract when heated, and can easily be stretched back to a looser shape when cool."

Since outer space is cold for the most part, it sounds like some type of heating system is needed to allow the new spacesuit to keep its tight fit. I guess that can be built into the pack that has the oxygen in it. I don't know what type of power packs are used in the current suits for more powerful, longer lasting ones may be needed, I would think.

Waspie - Do you have any info on this?

Sounds like my thinking might be wrong based on the previous post.

Edited September 22, 2014 by paperdyer

[SHaYap]

I think we'll be seeing more of these 'space' suits in the metropolis than out there in space ~ with a bluetooth accessory and you will light up every time you get a mobile call ~ or you can just play music and have it light up like a full vis effect suit ... now imagine a street full of such fashion adherents ~

~

[TonopahRick]

No spacesuit protects against radiation just pressure, heat, cold, etc.

[regeneratia]

Looks like something out of "Defying Gravity", the TV show.