MIT Unveils New Spacesuit Design

Space is not only for geeks but for the fashion conscious as well. Dava Newman, professor of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems at MIT, is working on a very advanced spacesuit that allows the wearer to move more freely than the current spacesuit. The BioSuit is a revolutionary spacesuit made from nylon and spandex and Newman hopes that the suit will be ready by the time humans are ready to explore Mars, around 10 years time.

Working with Dava Newman on this project are; her associate, Jeff Hoffman, her students and Trotti and Assocites, a design firm. They've been working on the BioSuit for almost seven years. Newman and her team are trying to achieve a lightweight, skintight suit that will allow more mobility for astronauts when they're exploring the moon, and soon-Mars.

Newman said that the traditional spacesuits which are bulky cannot provide the mobility and locomotion that astronauts need for exploration missions. "We really must design for greater mobility and enhanced human and robotic capability," says Newman.

Traditional spacesuits weigh around 300 pounds which is due to layers upon layers of material, the life support system and the gas pressurization which severely limits an astronaut's movement. Gas Pressurization is used on traditional spacesuits to protect an astronaut's body from the vacuum of space by exerting force upon it.

On the other hand, the BioSuit departs from the traditional model. Instead of using gas pressurization, the BioSuit uses mechanical counter pressure by wrapping tight layers of material around the body. The suit is skintight but stretches to allow freedom of movement. The BioSuit is also a lot safer than the traditional space suit. When a spacesuit is punctured in space, the astronaut must return to the space station or base immediately to prevent decompression of the spacesuit, on the other hand, when the BioSuit is punctured, the puncture can just be wrapped but the rest of the suit will not be affected.

The BioSuit's prototype is not yet ready for space travel, since to be worn in space, the BioSuit must deliver about one-third of the pressure exerted by the Earth's atmosphere or about 30 kilopascals (KPa). The current prototype only delivers a consistent 20 KPa but Newman's team has gotten the new prototypes up to 25 to 30 KPa.

The BioSuit was initially conceptualized by Paul Webb during the 1960s and 1970s when Webb came up with the idea of a "space activity suit" and Saul Iberall proposed the lines of non-extension. Newman said that Webb had a great idea before its time and that her team are just building on that work to make it feasible.

SOURCE:

Anne Trafton, One giant leap for space fashion: MIT team designs sleek, skintight spacesuit. MIT News. URL: (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/biosuit-0716.html)