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A Sexy New Space Suit for Mars Exploration?

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posted on Jan, 8 2014 @ 06:49 AM
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This Spacesuit For Exploring Mars Is A Form Fitting Math Problem



In all the Science Fiction movies, most of the brave space explorers depicted are sporting sexy spacesuits. In reality, spacesuits are bulky, cumbersome, uncomfortable, and make everyone look like Legos.

That may not for long be the way of things.


Enter Dava Newman, fashion designer to the stars. You won’t see her work on the red carpet, but if this MIT professor has her way, all the most fashionable space explorers will be wearing her designs when they set foot on the red planet.

For a mission to Mars to succeed, off-world explorers desperately need a new wardrobe to deal with the planet’s unique challenges. In humanity’s entire spacefaring existence, there have been 514 extravehicular space walks, but a single, multi-year mission to Mars will require over 1,000.


The work she's doing to make space-faring and exploration wardrobe sexier, isn't just about looks.
The new suits are being tested to be more durable, flexible, comfortable, and safer all around.


Providing that life-preserving pressure requires over a thousand feet of ribbing, which is threaded through the suit at critical strain points and held in place with over 140,000 stitches. Gold fibers are woven through the outfit and paired with biometric sensors to collect data that helps mission control keep tabs on the crew. The snug unis protect astronauts, provide greater freedom of movement and more physically taxing experiments, and importantly, make the astronauts look more like characters in a J.J. Abrams movie than some doofy educational film.

“Aesthetics are a critical component of design and engineering,” says Newman. “I still think space exploration is the most exciting thing going on, and heroic-looking suits might help make more of a human connection for folks.”

Beyond its good looks, the BioSuit will also be safer. If a micrometorite or piece of space junk pierced an EMU, the suit would rapidly depressurize, leaving the astronaut out of luck in outer space, but the BioSuit could be patched with next-gen duct tape.


All in all, I think the designs, so far, look pretty good, not only aesthetically, but, if they're safer as advertised, as well as being as comfortable, then these could very well provide protection here on Earth as well in extreme climates, like, for instance, scientists working in Antarctica.

Me likey.





posted on Jan, 8 2014 @ 06:54 AM
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Oh i LIKE it.

Reminds me of 2001: a space odyssey in the best way possible. Thanks for posting it i hope they stick with it.



posted on Jan, 8 2014 @ 07:00 AM
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reply to post by AliceBleachWhite
 


Oh lovely. They added Google Glass as well.

And even if the suit can be repaired with a next gen tape...you know it'll hurt like all hell if you are hit with a micro-meteorite. If it doesn't kill ya in the first place.

But overall, if this proof of concepts works...cool.



posted on Jan, 8 2014 @ 07:05 AM
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but the BioSuit could be patched with next-gen duct tape.


next gen duct tape?!?!
imagine the possibilities


“Aesthetics are a critical component of design and engineering,” says Newman. “I still think space exploration is the most exciting thing going on, and heroic-looking suits might help make more of a human connection for folks.”


no more regular Joe in space anymore just Scarlet Johansons



posted on Jan, 8 2014 @ 07:10 AM
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For protection against micro meteorites, which are micro remember, wouldn't some sort of inner or trapped between two layers of gel that freezes on contact with space plugging the tiny hole be a good idea - much like the gel you can put in tires to auto-patch punctures.

I wouldnt want to feel the sting of a micro meteorite and scrambling for my life saving bio tape! Its the future people



edit on 8-1-2014 by Biigs because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 8 2014 @ 07:12 AM
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One thing I have noticed.

Where is the seal between the suit and the head.

It looks like some type of inflateable thing. But it doesn't look to sturdy to me.

I guess I would have to poke and prod it first before I trusted it.



posted on Jan, 8 2014 @ 07:14 AM
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It certainly wont look that sexy when i'm in one...Anyway, i've asked them to stop bothering me with emails and just give me the flight time and i'll be there.. Size XXL



posted on Jan, 8 2014 @ 07:16 AM
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The gloves are simple "wolfrace" motorbike gloves, so ignore those



posted on Jan, 8 2014 @ 07:18 AM
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TDawgRex
reply to post by AliceBleachWhite
 


Oh lovely. They added Google Glass as well.

And even if the suit can be repaired with a next gen tape...you know it'll hurt like all hell if you are hit with a micro-meteorite. If it doesn't kill ya in the first place.

But overall, if this proof of concepts works...cool.


Well, patching with duct tape and having time to get to shelter is better than rapid decompression.
The ribbing system, I would think, would also lend pressure to any punctured area to minimize risk of bleeding out inside the suit as well.
Thus, from a trauma perspective, this suit could very well be the best thing upcoming for getting shot at by the Universe.




TDawgRex
One thing I have noticed.

Where is the seal between the suit and the head.

It looks like some type of inflateable thing. But it doesn't look to sturdy to me.

I guess I would have to poke and prod it first before I trusted it.


The suit pictured is still in the works.
It's not a final ready-for-space product yet.

In the end, I'm sure it'll have the standard ring seals for headgear, gloves, boots, as well as the intake and outlet fasteners for enviro/air.



edit on 1/8/2014 by AliceBleachWhite because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 8 2014 @ 07:23 AM
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reply to post by AliceBleachWhite
 


The key word here is "rapid".

I guess they would have to come with some tape dispensing system like those Post-it page markers.

Time is of the essence when a suit is pierced in space. (Or deep water diving even)



posted on Jan, 8 2014 @ 07:39 AM
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reply to post by TDawgRex
 


If I have it right, the way the suit works, only the affected area will decompress and be exposed to whatever environment as opposed to the systems in use now where a hole affects all the air in the suit.

One would thus, in theory, have time, and wits enough left about them to slap a patch on the entry and exit points (depending on how flexible the suit is in allowing one to reach their own back area if it's a torso hit similar gunshot to shoulder, or some other typically survivable gunshot-type entry/exit location), and hopefully make it to safety for emergency medical assistance.

Granted, we're talking hits that would equate to survivable if occurring naked on Earth, and within reason.
Impactors to the head and vital areas, as well as impacts of sufficient size, there's not much can be done about those.
Space is dangerous and deadly.
It's not all love and light like the New Agers seem to think.
Whatever we can do to make it safer and more survivable, all the better.




posted on Jan, 8 2014 @ 07:44 AM
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reply to post by AliceBleachWhite
 


Well said.

It always pleases me to know that there are others out there who think about the realistic ramifications of space travel...not to mention just life in general.



posted on Jan, 8 2014 @ 07:55 AM
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reply to post by AliceBleachWhite
 


Wow, quite a difference from our standard image of the Apollo guys clumsily bouncing around the moon. Thanks for this great find!



posted on Jan, 8 2014 @ 08:21 AM
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Indigent
next gen duct tape?!?!
imagine the possibilities



Ahhh. the future...



posted on Jan, 8 2014 @ 08:36 AM
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reply to post by SLAYER69
 


LELA DALOOUS MULTIPASS!!!



posted on Jan, 8 2014 @ 08:49 AM
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Update:

I found this talk from 2011 where Dava Newman, the designer (an MIT aeronautics Professor and Engineer BTW) is detailing the design and development of this new suit design -






posted on Jan, 8 2014 @ 10:30 AM
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Hmmm, now knowing that a space suit needs the ability to process bodily waste I am not certain the form fit model is a good one. Personally I would rather die than have the crotch take a micro meteor.



posted on Jan, 8 2014 @ 10:34 AM
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Mamatus
Hmmm, now knowing that a space suit needs the ability to process bodily waste I am not certain the form fit model is a good one. Personally I would rather die than have the crotch take a micro meteor.


Yeah Im wondering if you still have to wear space diapers still, the model in the picture is not so hot if shes standing in her own excrement

edit on 8-1-2014 by crazyewok because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 8 2014 @ 11:55 AM
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TDawgRex
reply to post by AliceBleachWhite
 


Oh lovely. They added Google Glass as well.

And even if the suit can be repaired with a next gen tape...you know it'll hurt like all hell if you are hit with a micro-meteorite. If it doesn't kill ya in the first place.


You'd stand about as much a chance of being hit by one on Mars as you do on the Earth. Small rocks burn up in the Martian atmosphere.

I like these space suits! I would wear one!



posted on Jan, 8 2014 @ 11:59 AM
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JadeStar


I like these space suits! I would wear one!


I would but only on mars .

Damed if you would ever get be doing a EVA in space.


Something about floating about in a void of infinate nothingness turns my stomach

edit on 8-1-2014 by crazyewok because: (no reason given)

edit on 8-1-2014 by crazyewok because: (no reason given)



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