Boeing's new spacesuit is far out

Yeah. They’d be permanently disabled at funny angles, or just flop uselessly.

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Color aside, it reminds me of the Russian suits from the 90s. They were already a lot lighter and less bulky, though I bet they had some other draw backs

Though this new one I am sure is an even bigger improvement.

Dig the color too.

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I’m holding out for a yellow-tinted reflective version from Oakley.

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It makes the soil look orange.

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I was there on EVA until I saw that the boots are “breathable”. Theory quashed.

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Some serious gay porn names there

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From one spaceman to another… what’s wrong with a bigger codpiece?

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There was a pretty good book recentishly about the development of the Apollo suit, which I think (?) is still NASA’s current state-of-the-art proper space suit, with some iterative improvements.

It seems the really hard part is making a suit you can actually move around in. If it’s loose-fitting, it becomes a high-pressure balloon and moving your limbs is like trying to bend the structural supports of a bounce house (which are pretty rigid). If it’s tight enough to stop your flesh inflating, like a full-body pressure stocking, that tends to crush some body parts (apparently it’s not uncommon for 'nauts to have fingernails fall off due to tight gloves). Combining the two ideas involves a lot of complicated seals. Articulated hard suits are even more complicated, and were thought to be too difficult to move in, although I gather that thinking has since changed a bit.

The thesis of that book is that NASA’s whole engineering-driven culture basically met its match in trying to deal with squishy human bodies, and that space suits are just irreducibly complex and difficult.

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The suit serves the same purpose as these NASA suits from Shuttle:


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Reminds me of the MOL spacesuit.

Blue because it was for the Airforce, not civilian. Dates from a time when the USAF and NASA had competing space programs with different intentions.

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I wonder what we spent that money on, starting in 2001?

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Thanks, I really enjoyed that. I come here to learn stuff, and I did.

Um… that Andy guy (I haven’t read the book) must be a girl because he wore his hat inside. A girl is the best thing to be, and all. But (and somebody should tell him).

My father was there for the Coast Guard. I mean for the blue. they called it Bender Blue. For a class mate of his.

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Really?

“the boots are breathable”

Is it just me or does that seem like a bad idea for a space suit?

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Its probably about air circulation inside the boots. If they are too tight, sweat will just accumulate down there.

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I don’t think I understand how the suit can be both pressurized and breathable.

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Hypermasculinity. LOL