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MIT designs sleek, skintight spacesuit

mit-space-suit.jpg

The folks at MIT have developed a new space suit to allow greater mobility for astronauts called the BioSuit. They expect to have it ready for use in about ten years, and it would be invaluable for missions to someplace like Mars, where current spacesuits are just too bulky.

Newman's prototype suit is a revolutionary departure from the traditional model. Instead of using gas pressurization, which exerts a force on the astronaut's body to protect it from the vacuum of space, the suit relies on mechanical counter-pressure, which involves wrapping tight layers of material around the body. The trick is to make a suit that is skintight but stretches with the body, allowing freedom of movement.

Key to their design is the pattern of lines on the suit, which correspond to lines of non-extension (lines on the skin that don't extend when you move your leg). Those lines provide a stiff "skeleton" of structural support, while providing maximal mobility.

This thing looks like it was pulled out of a cartoon. If they actually get it to work it'll completely change the way I look at astronauts. Namely with more boners.

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