Next-Gen Spacesuits 123
ambermichelle writes "Outer space is a hostile environment for humans, characterized by an airless vacuum, thermal extremes, ionizing radiation and speeding micro meteoroids. Less well-known are the dangers posed by long-term exposure to microgravity or zero-g conditions, which over time severely saps the strength of astronauts' muscles and bones. Several researchers are working to develop new spacesuit designs that could help counteract these threats as well as avoid some of the familiar drawbacks of current spacesuit models such as bulk, weight and rigidity."
Incentives for Space Travel (Score:2, Interesting)
When astronauts start looking like Samus Aran, with or without the power armor, I expect interest in space travel will increase dramatically.
frosty piss (Score:5, Interesting)
was contained in the bladder in one boot in the Apollo pressure-suit designs. I wonder what they'll do for these elastic suits.
Re:Incentives for Space Travel (Score:2, Interesting)
Don't worry.
No one is ever going into space again.
There's really nothing there, anyways. Just the fantasies of exploration, by creatures unable to even understand themselves.
Re:Who the heck for? (Score:5, Interesting)
Not the answer (Score:5, Interesting)
We are going to have to come up with solutions on a much grander scale to change the environment, not adapt to it. It's how we humans have taken over the planet and how we will take over space. But we won't do it till we spend a lot more time on earth doing the grunt work (engineering and thinking) instead of spending billions on half baked manned missions to nowhere worthwhile.
Re:Not the answer (Score:4, Interesting)
Use centrifugal force at the space station level to implement actual gravity.
Centripital. And the problem with that is, the structure you're standing in has the same sense of acceleration as the astronaut. It has to be dramatically stronger, and thus heavier, and therefore unworkable in orbit.
Read about these before. (Score:4, Interesting)
I had been watching some of the news and documentaries about the group doing the suits. They still had quite a few hurdles to overcome, as the squeeze suit had not been able to provide enough pressure to reach that critical 1/3rd of an atmosphere. The Article does not seem to indicate if they have tackled that, only "proven the technical feasibility", which sounds about where I heard they were last.
When I saw them plying a big length of rubber on the leg of someone, it looked like something ready to cut off someone's circulation if left on too long. It tripped a few skeptical alarms for me. Will these have to be custom fitted? What happens if someone gains or loses weight(ie: mass)? Will using them for any length of time be uncomfortable or dangerous to people? They seem pretty happy to wander around in public wearing what appears to be a prototype. It just worries me that it might be a lot of hot air.
The use of Gyros sounds a bit odd, perhaps I am not quite sure of the process in which bones lose density. I would have thought the loss of bone mass is from the lack of gravity bones are subjected to in the first place, not a lack of resistance to movement. Gravity pulls mostly uniformly on people, Gyros probably won't help too much for putting resistance on someone's spine or other bones in the center of one's mass. It might help some for muscle loss though. Has NASA agreed to ship some of these up to the ISS for some testing?
Its a shame without shuttle like services we might not be able to do too much testing of the technologies we want to use to survive the trip, live on, and return from Mars. There are many that would be a great help.
Re:Not the answer (Score:5, Interesting)
But we won't do it till we spend a lot more time on earth doing the grunt work (engineering and thinking) instead of spending billions on half baked manned missions to nowhere worthwhile.
While I agree to a point, you actually have to eventually do these things in order to see how they work.
Consider Apollo. We didn't just fire up the ol' Saturn V and head to the Moon. You're right that there was lots of design and testing done on Earth. But eventually we flew Apollo 7 [wikipedia.org] in orbit around Earth in order to test the CSM. We flew around the Moon on Apollo 8 [wikipedia.org] to test those procedures (as well as beat them Rooskis to the Moon). Apollo 9 [wikipedia.org] tested the LEM and the extraction procedures in Earth orbit and Apollo 10 [wikipedia.org] tested them in Lunar orbit (as an aside, I have to admit that if I was on the Apollo 10 mission and everything was working out, I'd be tempted to yell "Fuck you, Neil!" into my radio and land on the Moon. What's NASA gonna do?) Not to mention the various unmanned launches before Apollo 7 [wikipedia.org].
Were all those "half-baked" missions of the Apollo program a waste? Are you saying we should have just shot astronauts at the Moon until one of them made it?
Re:Incentives for Space Travel (Score:4, Interesting)