Elon Musk Posts First Photo of SpaceX's New Spacesuit (arstechnica.com) 142
Early Wednesday morning, SpaceX founder Elon Musk posted a photo of the spacesuit that will be used by astronauts flying aboard the company's Dragon spacecraft, perhaps as early as next year. Ars Technica reports: In his Instagram post, Musk added that this suit was not a mock-up but rather a fully functional unit. "Already tested to double vacuum pressure," he wrote. "Was incredibly hard to balance aesthetics and function. Easy to do either separately." (Double vacuum pressure simply means the suit was probably inflated to twice the pressure of sea level and then put into a vacuum chamber.) Musk gave no other technical information about the suit. Most strikingly, it is white, in contrast to the very blue spacesuits unveiled by Boeing in January. These are not, strictly speaking, "space suits." Rather, they are more properly flight suits designed to be worn during the ride to space and again on the ride back down to Earth. They have a limited time in which they can operate in a full vacuum and are not intended for spacewalks.
Call it what it is (Score:1)
These are not, strictly speaking, "space suits." Rather, they are more properly flight suits designed to be worn during the ride to space and again on the ride back down to Earth. They have a limited time in which they can operate in a full vacuum and are not intended for spacewalks.
So call the flight suit a flight suit. Different tools are for different jobs, and giving them a distinct name helps to avoid confusion.
Re: Call it what it is (Score:1)
They don't have the resources to keep a human breathing, non-irradiated and temperate over a long time period.
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Because those suits are only here to address a risk that killed the Soyuz 11 crew : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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you think that boosts public perception of spacex and musk as much?
he doesn't care about mispresenting. it would be easy enough to argue that he deliberately makes misleading pr(more recently particularly about teslas financial affairs/state)
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So call the flight suit a flight suit.
Because flight suit is ambiguous just as space suit is also ambiguous. They are not strictly speaking "EVA" suits but they are IVA space suits. To quote Wikipedia
Three types of spacesuits exist for different purposes: IVA (intravehicular activity), EVA (extravehicular activity), and IEVA (intra/extravehicular activity).
Boeing uses the same nomenclature. http://www.boeing.com/features... [boeing.com]
They're designed to be used in a vacuum. Therefore space suit is a perfectly acceptable term. Just because a suit isn't an EVA suit doesn't mean it's not also a space suit.
better looking than boeing. (Score:2)
Not sure how it looks inflated but it certainly looks like a motorcycle outfit.
I do like the fact it has an actual helmet, unlike the blue suit which looks like a completely "rollupable" uprated biohazard suit. Keep in mind these are just "pressure suits", not "space suits"
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I do like the fact it has an actual helmet
Boeing has a helmet as well. You just wear it inside the hazmat-bubble.
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Wow, better warn SpaceX of their horrible oversight! I'm sure nobody at SpaceX thought of ensuring mobility during their design and testing phases, and I'm sure NASA does not have any mobility requirements - better warn them both, stat! Thank you, Anonymous Coward, for saving the space program!
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That being said, this looks like a flight suit and doesn't look very realistic as a space suit. Where are the hose connections? How do you scratch your nose? Hydration? Visor for sunlight? I suspect the actual suit is much less "sleek" when ready for a spacewalk (also, if the shoulders really are that small, I'd love to know how he manages constant volume).
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He(?) is right you know. If you'd bothered to read any number of other replies to this topic this isn't a space suit, it can't work as a space suit and so the AC you replied to is right. There are a lot of problems with this design if it was intended to be a space suit (which it isn't) but it's still PR-ojected as being one. False news in other words.
There are some ideas that maybe some day may make slimmer space suits possible but not today and probably not from SpaceX.
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My armchair has a NASA sticker on it! My bed is also in the shape of a rocket ship.
Whose the expert now? Check mate atheists.
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Diaper. I am also an armchair astronaut.
Something about spaceX or Tesla?? (Score:2, Funny)
Then let the Elon Musk bashing begin!
It's been the favourite pastime for trolls on Slashdot these last years, after all.
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Given the huge amount of wank given to Musk in Slashdot stories "these last years" it is not surprising that you can see a proportional amount of Musk bashing.
Render therefore unto Caesar (Score:2)
I would say: "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's" - though I want to avoid religious connotation hence I would be categorized as a Elon-wanker. ;-)
But give to the man what he deserves, and he deserves at least some small praise. That some un-rightfully praise him into heavens is not his fault, and doesn't mean he deserves to be un-rightfully bashed neither. He's not at fault for wankers, nor for slashdot-stories, so I fail to see the logic why it would be justified to bash him withou
Disturbing thought, balancing that... (Score:1)
I mean, it's function is to keep you alive. There's no _balance_ in that, that's a zero fail mission. Balance implies trade offs. By definition this is one of those times you can't take away from B for A... at all. If there's _room_ for A, sure make some A... but leave B the fuck alone.
Re:But (Score:5, Funny)
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Why shouldn't you be able to? I doubt that the way to keep the suit in place is that invasive that you can't squeeze one out.
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Since you wear a spacesuit... (Score:2)
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Because striding out in a aesthetically pleasing suit to the launch pad is a better photo op than waddling out in a balloon suit. Or do you disagree that the Mercury astronauts in their silver suits look better and cooler than the Shuttle astronauts in their orange blobs?
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Since SpaceX also wants to cash in on space-tourism: If you pay some million of USD for a trip, you also want to look good, right?
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eh, I'd mainly want to live. And to poop in it.
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Because people who have the cool millions laying around to enjoy a brief trip into space typically care about aesthetics.
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why should one care about aesthetics
Because manned space flight is mostly about science PR. One man or woman walks out in a kickass space suit and 1,000 school kids run off to become engineers and software developers. It's the same reason the Blue Angels exist. Every time a Blue Angel flies over a city 100 kids enlist in the Navy.
It's kind of also like how for every person who is a software developer a AAA game engine, there are a 1,000 programmers who are working on eCommerce shopping-cart code that were inspired to learn programming in o
Re:"Was incredibly hard to balance aesthetics... (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, when your goal is to make space travel mass market, making things aesthetically appealing is a key aspect. Musk's goal is not and never has been $25m trips to space for the select few; he wants to make space travel a common occurrence.
As for "solid spacesuit", I assume you mean like the NASA AX [google.is] series, which are built more like atmospheric diving suits [google.is] than traditional space suits. And the answer is the same reason why NASA doesn't use them - while mobility in them is superb, they're significantly heavier. About the only place in the solar system where it makes sense to use them at present (in combination with insulation and either a heat-absorbing material (akin to Venera) or a heat pump with cooling channels, and a bellows balloon) is the surface of Venus. A more popular research topic is hybrid pressure / hard suits, where you have certain parts rigid (such as the torso) and others inflated.
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I'm skeptical that *any* space suit is a part of a mass market space travel future.. So long as there is a risk of decompression severe enough to warrant the precaution of wearing a spacesuit, I don't see it as being a 'common occurance'.
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And yet, I rode a vehicle to work today that is so dangerous the law requires me to wear a helmet. I saw two other people on the road on my way in riding the same sort of vehicle.
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I'm skeptical that *any* space suit is a part of a mass market space travel future..
The market is already there, the only question is price. You can already pre-order a flight on Virgin Galactic, and from what I call a few rich people already have.
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Actually, when your goal is to make space travel mass market, making things aesthetically appealing is a key aspect. Musk's goal is not and never has been $25m trips to space for the select few; he wants to make space travel a common occurrence.
As for "solid spacesuit", I assume you mean like the NASA AX [google.is] series, which are built more like atmospheric diving suits [google.is] than traditional space suits. And the answer is the same reason why NASA doesn't use them - while mobility in them is superb, they're significantly heavier. About the only place in the solar system where it makes sense to use them at present (in combination with insulation and either a heat-absorbing material (akin to Venera) or a heat pump with cooling channels, and a bellows balloon) is the surface of Venus. A more popular research topic is hybrid pressure / hard suits, where you have certain parts rigid (such as the torso) and others inflated.
Well, here's the answer to the question I wanted to ask.
Still, I'm surprised that so much energy was put on aesthetic. I mean, how could you make a freaking "space/flight suit" unaesthetic? Even the original NASA space suit is so cool that people bring it at hockey games [sportsnet.ca].
Re: "Was incredibly hard to balance aesthetics... (Score:2, Funny)
The rocket I saw land in Florida sure looked real , tell me more internet keyboard flat earther!
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Right there you can tell they haven't got a clue. Aesthetics are completely irrelevant
They are intending to bring space travel to the ultra rich. They understand their market far better than you do.
Re:"double vacuum pressure" - WTF? (Score:5, Interesting)
Outside is vacuum, inside is double pressure.
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Why would you bother to put it in a vac chamber? All pressures are relative. Pressurize the suit to 3X.
Re:"double vacuum pressure" - WTF? (Score:5, Informative)
It's not that simple. Materials can behave differently in a vacuum than they do at atmospheric pressure.
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On this particular point, I think I can be sympathetic. He's talking to the media and wanting this consumed by people who are likely to hear 'two atmospheres? that's crazy there's no atmosphere in space, is he an idiot?'.
Meanwhile, the people who know that to be inappropriate phrasing quickly knew what he was trying to say.
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Well also, if you told someone that the suit was "tested to two atmospheres", I would expect some people might understand that to mean that the suit is able to maintain integrity when two atmospheres of pressure are on the outside of it. It makes sense to try to make a distinction and say that they tested it in a vacuum, but tested with greater pressure inside than would normally be necessary.
I don't know if there's a more commonly accepted way of making that distinction, but it makes sense to me that som
Typical of Musk (Score:1)
He's like a car salesman that starts by showing you the cup holders.
He promises us the Hyperloop, then shows us the inside of its cabin [cnet.com].
He promises human flight to the ISS, then shows us the space, oh wait, I mean flight suit, that will be worn by travelers.
When will he show us what he promised to show us?
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You mean like rocket first stages landing safely at a specific location in a way conducive to being reused ? Or perhaps electric cars that you can buy right now? Maybe home power storage solutions?
Sure, he might not have all his projects finished yet, but he's certainly delivering a hell of a lot more than most big-talkers.
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The promise wasn't "electric cars that you can buy now", it was "electric ca
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Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has nothing to do with Musk. More to the point, the only thing Musk initially stated about Hyperloop that he's now starting to go back on was that he wasn't going to get personally involved with it.
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He's like a car salesman that starts by showing you the cup holders.
He promises us the Hyperloop, then shows us the inside of its cabin [cnet.com].
He promises human flight to the ISS, then shows us the space, oh wait, I mean flight suit, that will be worn by travelers.
When will he show us what he promised to show us?
If every company showed nothing until everything was done we'd have quite a boring (and probably poor performing) market. This stuff, the sneak peaks, gets people excited about things now and makes them eager to see more. That's how it always works, I'm sure you weren't born yesterday? Instead of criticizing them for not delivering human space flight ahead of schedule, save your criticism for next year when they fail to meet their actual '18 Q2 delivery time. Then you'll actually have some ground to sta
Interstellar (Score:1)
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Well a proper space suit is essentially a house for the body so suite maybe correct in a way...
Look of the suit (Score:1)
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I'm curious about the part "hard to balance aesthetics and function". How will it look like? Space Marine Power Armor? Exo-skeleton? Really curious to see.
So maybe click the link in the summary to go see pictures of it??
Missed opportunity (Score:2)
If cabin pressure drops, the suit balloons up and makes it hard to move. An excellent way to counter this is by simply leaving less air in the suit, i.e. make it skintight. It's a shame they didn't do this; I was rather looking forward to our glorious future society where everyone walks around in skintight suits...
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If cabin pressure drops, the suit balloons up and makes it hard to move. An excellent way to counter this is by simply leaving less air in the suit, i.e. make it skintight. It's a shame they didn't do this; I was rather looking forward to our glorious future society where everyone walks around in skintight suits...
Be careful what you wish for. Have you seen most Americans? You wouldn't want to see me in one, that's for sure...
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If cabin pressure drops, the suit balloons up and makes it hard to move. An excellent way to counter this is by simply leaving less air in the suit, i.e. make it skintight. It's a shame they didn't do this; I was rather looking forward to our glorious future society where everyone walks around in skintight suits...
Be careful what you wish for. Have you seen most Americans? You wouldn't want to see me in one, that's for sure...
I'm currently on a business trip to the US, so I see lots of them all around me. And while many would not be improved much by skintight clothing, there have been a few that I certainly wouldn't mind observing in such manner ;-)
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Skin tight suits have issues with creasing pinching the wearer's skin. Now, for a suit you're only wearing in case of a cockpit pressure failure, you may be willing to risk that in return for a more comfortable suit.
Another option is the constant volume suit - and we've been making those since the 60s. They have their advantages, but they probably are better for situations where you're not mostly depending on your spacecraft for pressure anyway.
Space 1999 (Score:2)
I think this flight suit was tested in Space 1999...
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On a related note, I hear Musk has an awesome plan to deal with nuclear waste by storing it on the moon.
Awesome tech in the tradition of Steve Zissou (Score:1)
Dressing for Altitude:U.S. Aviation Pressure Suits (Score:2)
NASA produced a book some few years ago on the history of flight suits called Dressing for Altitude. It's not the world's most riveting read, but it is freely available online [nasa.gov] and it may (somewhat ironically) have the best design and typography of any book I've read.
Also in a similarly space-related bent, if anyone here has not read John Clark's Ignition! [sciencemadness.org] then they should certainly do so. The subtitle of the book should probably be "The secret history of rocket fuel", but the author went for "An informal
Who wore it better? (Score:3)
We will get Star Destroyers! (Score:2)
Looks like a prototype for Stormtrooper armor.
Galactic Empire confirmed!
Not astronauts, but... (Score:1)
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Since these will be used for the short vanity flight of the very rich, can we not call them astronauts and, instead, call them Space Douches, or something else?
No. These will be mostly used by Astronauts visiting the International Space Station.
Re:flag? (Score:4, Funny)
That's just the currently selected layout for the built-in keyboard.
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NASA funded development of the falcon 9 and dragon and are currently funding development of the dragon 2. They are also the largest single buyer of the falcon 9 and the only buyer so far for the dragon capsule.
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no, nationalism is divisive, just like religion is.
Not necessarily, it can be used also to distinguish a nation from an occupying foreign power, as was the case with Ireland's struggle against the British (to name a popular yet completely valid example). Personally I don't like this whole "one world, no nation" idea; people may be fundamentally the same across countries; there is only a finite number of observable personally types (if looked at from a robust and not an idiosyncratic perspective), but cultural differences do exist, and should be respected an
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>Everybody knows that a space suit should have a flag I disagree strongly. we nearly rid ourselves of religion. we need to put this divisive nazi-onalistic bullshit behind us as well.
Bullshit? Then what would we be defined (i used the word defined loosely) by then? private enterprise? GDP? National debt? An arbitrary symbol? (what the Nazis in fact used)
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When all nations are no longer in a cold/hot war and all contribute equally, then it is fine.
BUT, with China in a major cold war with the west ( and winning it on the economic front), it makes little sense to NOT take some pride.
As it is, ALL NATIONS display their flags. It seems like AMerica tends to be the one hit over the head for doing what everybody else is doing.
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Re:flag? (Score:5, Insightful)
it's a flight suit.
not a space suit.
as far as hoses, I suppose it's hidden somewhere. since it's not for space walks and is just for sitting down basically while in flight to protect you if pressure drops or something.
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it's a flight suit.
not a space suit.
as far as hoses, I suppose it's hidden somewhere. since it's not for space walks and is just for sitting down basically while in flight to protect you if pressure drops or something.
But it does not have huge padded shoulders and epaulets! Cryst, a million sci-fi moves and television shows tell us that it has to have huge padded shoulders and epaulets!
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Isn't it also supposed to have a health readout on a chest plate and/or armband? How else are people supposed to know that the air runs out in 24 minutes but there's 28 minutes before they land and it's safe to open the hatch?
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Isn't it also supposed to have a health readout on a chest plate and/or armband? How else are people supposed to know that the air runs out in 24 minutes but there's 28 minutes before they land and it's safe to open the hatch?
Oh, they'll know. At least 4 minutes before landing. That's calle "just in time expiration".
Re: flag? (Score:1)
.. and that's because if you were running forward with a flag on a pole, the flag would be appear "backwards" from this side - as the pole would of course be at the front and the stars are nearest the pole.
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Do they plan to send the Stig up? Surely he's want a British flag??
And a tinted visor. Also could they send Jeremy Clarkson up and leave him there for the sake of humanity!
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This isn't a "space suit" it is a "flight suit". These will only be used during transport to and from orbit. They are not intended to be used for extended space walks. For space walks you would need the bulkier suits.
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However, the flag will be replaced with whatever nation the suit owner has. Canadian flag for Canadian owner. etc. etc. And right now, that suit is targeted to NASA.
Also, the connections tend to be on the lower left-hand side.
Finally, look again at that material. I think that it is type of pleather, perhaps the same stuff that is now in tesla seats. If so, it is VERY str
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I'm pretty sure that the flag is necessary according to both the Geneva Convention (since it is technically a government uniform) and it is also needed according to the Outer Space Treaty in terms of what country is responsible for that astronaut's actions. It is legally required by international law and conventions of space travel.
Nope, that is the final design, minus a few tweaks. SpaceX engineers have actually been wearing it for human factors design
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why does it need to show a flag?
So they know where to mail the body once it's found floating in the ocean?
So they have some idea on what language the wearer speaks if they land far off target?
So they don't get shot/hanged as a spy if they land far off target? (Not that it'd save them universally but wearing a country identifier does conform to international laws on things like piracy, spies, and such.)
Because decades of seeing pictures of government funded astronauts wearing flags on their spacesuits people expect flags on spacesuits? I