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DailyDirt: Looking Fashionable In New Spacesuit Designs

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Protecting humans from the harsh environment of space isn’t easy, so spacesuits are usually bulky and not too fashionable. Buzz Lightyear’s outfit is actually not too unbecoming, but astronauts probably shouldn’t dress like animated characters, even if they could. Astronauts shouldn’t worry about what they look like as long as they’re safely protected, but certain astronaut images might scare off folks (aliens?). Here are just a few spacesuit designs that future space travelers are testing out now.

• Alan Eustace didn’t make it to space, but he did set a new world record by free falling from 25 miles above the Earth. He broke Felix Baumgartner’s record by about a mile, and it took a special spacesuit to protect him during his 15-minute fall that exceeded the speed of sound. [url]
• MIT is working on a form-fitting spacesuit with active compression coils embedded in the fabric. This BioSuit has been under development for a few years already, and it’s definitely the most fashionable spacesuit — if it actually allows astronauts to survive in space. [url]
• NASA asked people to vote for their favorite new Z-2 spacesuit design, but the winning design won’t go into space. The Z-2 suit will be tested for performance and comfort, but it’s just a prototype that will influence the design of a future spacesuit that may one day be used for spacewalks and planetary EVAs. [url]

If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: alan eustace, astronauts, biosuit, eva, felix baumgartner, manned missions, space, space exploration, spacesuit
Companies: mit, nasa