Spacesuit that looks like a second-skin promises to support astronauts without hindering their movements

Sep 20, 2014 18:07 GMT  ·  By

This might come as a bit of a shock, but as it turns out, scientists too are very much interested in fashion. However, the outfits that they create aren't meant for catwalks in Milan or Paris. On the contrary, they are especially designed for runways in space.

Not to beat about the bush, MIT researchers say that they are now working on developing a spacesuit that looks nothing like the ones currently worn by astronauts, and that they hope to soon introduce the world to their creation.

Meet the skintight spacesuit of the future

An artist's impression of the spacesuit MIT scientists have in the works is available next to this article. As one can easily notice, this spacesuit is intended to be as tight as it gets, and cover an astronaut's body much like a second skin would.

In fact, it would not be all that far-fetched to argue that, when wearing this spacesuit, astronauts would look very much look like ancient Egyptian mummies. Unless the brainiacs working on this research project decide to make the suit a wee more colorful, maybe even add some glitter.

Scientists imagine astronauts simply putting on a lightweight, stretchy garment lined with muscle-like coils, and then using a power supply to get the coils to contract and thus have the suit wrap itself around their bodies as neatly and as tightly as possible.

“With conventional spacesuits, you’re essentially in a balloon of gas that’s providing you with the necessary one-third of an atmosphere of pressure to keep you alive in the vacuum of space,” scientist Dava Newman explained in a statement.

“We want to achieve that same pressurization, but through mechanical counterpressure — applying the pressure directly to the skin, thus avoiding the gas pressure altogether. We combine passive elastics with active materials,” he went on to detail.

The anatomy of the spacesuit of the future

In order for astronauts to be able to put it on and then take it off without too much trouble, the spacesuit would have to be made from a so-called material that contracts in response to heat and that returns to a looser form when it starts to cool down.

The materials that MIT researchers are currently experimenting with are nickel-titanium shape-memory alloys, which they say can be trained to take a certain shape, depending on the temperatures that they are exposed to at a given moment.

So far, the researchers have managed to develop garments fitted with springlike coils that contract when exposed to heat. By the looks of it, the pressure produced by these coils is more than enough to keep astronauts safe when in space. However, the researchers don't yet know how to get the suit to remain tight when temperatures drop.

They believe that they can achieve this either by coming up with a way to make sure that the suit remains warm and, therefore, skintight at all times, or simply piece together some sort of a locking mechanism that would keep the coils from loosening while astronauts are busy exploring space.

Why develop such an odd-looking suit?

When it comes to space exploration, it's always better to be walking around carrying as little baggage as possible. Otherwise put, such suits would surely make it way easier for astronauts to do their job. As Dava Newman put it, “Ultimately, the big advantage is mobility, and a very lightweight suit for planetary exploration.”

Then again, the MIT scientists behind this project believe that their work could also come in handy in medical emergencies. More precisely, they envision such coils-based materials being used to control bleeding either on the battlefield, or in some other high-risk situations.

“You could use this as a tourniquet system if someone is bleeding out on the battlefield. If your suit happens to have sensors, it could tourniquet you in the event of injury without you even having to think about it,” said specialist Bradley Holschuh.