Monday, July 16, 2007

Sleek new spacesuit design


In the 40 years that humans have been traveling into space, the suits they wear have changed very little. The bulky, gas-pressurized outfits give astronauts a bubble of protection, but their significant mass and the pressure itself severely limit mobility.

Dava Newman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems at MIT, wants to change that.

Newman is working on a sleek, advanced suit designed to allow superior mobility when humans eventually reach Mars or return to the moon. Her spandex and nylon BioSuit is not your grandfather's spacesuit--think more Spiderman, less John Glenn.



Photo / Donna Coveney

2 comments:

ron huber.55 said...

She probably should add a "butt pad" to the suit, similar to the suit's knee pads--so the wearer can sit on rough surfaces without fraying the material, etc.

Anonymous said...

possibly. However in zero g the elbow pads make sense, considering that most locomotion is handled by the arms. I never could understand boot tread on suits that were on the space station. they are for what?