Suits for the next giant leap
Posted: Monday, July 16, 2007 8:32 PM by Alan Boyle
After years of work, MIT researcher Dava Newman is showing off the ultralight, ultratight spacesuit she and her colleagues have been developing for future missions to the moon and Mars.
Newman's team is just one of several groups working on future spacesuit concepts - groups that include the companies that currently supply NASA's suits. In the coming months, NASA is due to select one team to provide the suit that astronauts will wear for the next series of giant leaps.
Currently, NASA astronauts use one type of suit during the space shuttle's launch and re-entry (the orange-colored get-up nicknamed the "pumpkin suit") and another type of suit for spacewalks (the Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or EMU). The spacewalking suit is loaded with so much life-support and communications gear that it weighs about 225 pounds (102 kilograms) when it's not in zero-G. That's right: The suit could conceivably be heavier than the astronaut inside.
Donna Coveney / MIT |
Dava Newman, a professor of aeronautics and
astronautics and engineering systems, models
her Biosuit on Henry Moore's sculpture
"Reclining Figure" on the MIT campus.
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For the Constellation Program, NASA's effort to return to the moon by 2020, the space agency expects to have one basic suit that can be adapted for launch and re-entry as well as spacewalks and surface operations. It's also looking for a suit that's more lightweight and easier to move in. That's where Newman's Biosuit concept, pioneered using funds from the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts, could make a big difference: Astronauts would look less like the Michelin Man and more like Spider-Man.
Spacesuits are built to protect the body from the near-vacuum of space - and the traditional spacewalking suit does that through internal air pressurization. The multilayered suit balloons up to put the proper pressure on the body - but that also forces the astronaut inside to work harder. Newman estimates that 70 to 80 percent of the energy expended by a spacewalker goes to bending the suit's joints against that pressure.
In contrast, the Biosuit does the same job through mechanical counterpressure. As detailed in today's news release from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, tight bands of spandex and nylon are woven into the suit, providing tension along the "lines of non-extension" - that is, the circles running around the skin that don't expand when you move a joint. The result is a garment that provides a stiff skeleton while preserving much more of a person's mobility.
Donna Coveney / MIT |
MIT's Dava Newman shows off the Biosuit's flexibility at the joints.
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To keep the body safe in space, a spacesuit should exert about 30 kilopascals of pressure against the skin - which is roughly one-third of normal atmospheric pressure. MIT says the Biosuit is getting close to that standard, reaching levels of 20 to 30 kilopascals.
You could imagine using the skintight approach in combination with a gas-pressurized torso section and helmet, or perhaps incorporating the super-tough fabric that Bigelow Aerospace is currently using on its inflatable space modules. Newman even suggests that the spacesuit could be spun onto your skin like a Spidey web.
Newman figures that the Biosuit could be ready for prime time in 10 years - just about the time NASA might be turning its attention to manned Mars missions. In the nearer term, the Biosuit team is talking about incorporating the technology into athletic wear, or perhaps even sleeker-looking braces for folks who have trouble walking.
The Biosuit may represent the future far frontier of space fashion, but there are plenty of people more focused on what's just ahead. For months, NASA has been talking about the kind of spacesuit it will need for the post-shuttle era, and the agency is expected to issue its first draft request for proposals any day now. A conference for would-be contractors is tentatively scheduled for July 30, the project's contracting officer at NASA, James Gips, told me today. The winner is due to be start work next June.
Among those likely to vie for the contract are Hamilton Sundstrand and ILC Dover, two companies that currently work together to build NASA's EMU spacesuit. For years, Hamilton Sundstrand has been sending spacesuit prototypes up to the Canadian Arctic for tryouts during the NASA-backed Haughton Mars Project, and yet another spacesuit test is scheduled to take place this summer.
Other groups, such as Orbital Outfitters, are designing togs for suborbital space tourists - who wouldn't need the level of protection required for spacewalks or lunar surface operations. The front-runner in the suborbital space race, Virgin Galactic, is said to be aiming for a stylish unisuit with a pull-on hood. And then there's Rocketplane Kistler, which plans to offer tourists a rack of high-fashion duds for suborbital trips.
Fashion on the final frontier? Will spacewear someday become as sexy as it looked in, say, "Star Trek" or (gasp) "Barbarella"? Would that be a good thing or a bad thing? Feel free to add your take on spacesuit technology or even space fashion in the comment section below.
Update for 2 p.m. ET July 18: NASA has now posted the draft request for proposals for the next-generation spacesuit, laying out a development process that runs through September 2018. The documents are loaded with bureaucratese, as is usually the case with these things. If you really want to sell NASA a spacesuit, you should sign up for the July 30 "pre-proposal conference." You've got until next Wednesday to RSVP.
