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One giant leap for space fashion: MIT team designs sleek, skintight spacesuit
MIT News ^ | 7/16/2007 | Anne Trafton

Posted on 07/17/2007 7:21:53 AM PDT by TChris

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Interesting progress
1 posted on 07/17/2007 7:21:54 AM PDT by TChris
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To: TChris

Spray on?

:-)


2 posted on 07/17/2007 7:23:30 AM PDT by xcamel ("It's Talk Thompson Time!" >> irc://irc.freenode.net/fredthompson)
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To: TChris

Dava Newman. For research purposes only....

3 posted on 07/17/2007 7:24:28 AM PDT by r9etb
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To: r9etb

I wouldn’t mind getting in to her space suit..........


4 posted on 07/17/2007 7:25:27 AM PDT by Red Badger (No wonder Mexico is so filthy. Everybody who does cleaning jobs is HERE!.......)
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To: KevinDavis

‘Barbarella’ ping!


5 posted on 07/17/2007 7:25:49 AM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: TChris

Hello, Newman.


6 posted on 07/17/2007 7:27:10 AM PDT by Hegemony Cricket (You can take the boy out of the country, but you just can't get the smell off his shoes.)
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To: TChris

They look funnier than hell but if it works...what an awesome breakthrough!


7 posted on 07/17/2007 7:27:10 AM PDT by Psycho_Bunny
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To: TChris

8 posted on 07/17/2007 7:28:34 AM PDT by dfwgator (The University of Florida - Still Championship U)
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To: TChris

Paging Seven Of Nine...


9 posted on 07/17/2007 7:28:59 AM PDT by tarheelswamprat
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To: dfwgator
Oh yeah!? Well, "            " to you too!
10 posted on 07/17/2007 7:30:04 AM PDT by TChris (The Republican Party is merely the Democrat Party's "away" jersey - Vox Day)
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To: TChris
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.

Well, no, it's not a new idea at all. About 20 years ago I saw some old NASA test films (dating back to the '60s) of "skintight suits," based on exactly the same principles.

The suits worked OK for a while, but eventually the extremities -- hands especially -- began to swell so much that the test subject couldn't even get the gloves on, much less do anything with his hands.

The more things change....

11 posted on 07/17/2007 7:31:44 AM PDT by r9etb
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To: r9etb

Not guilty.


12 posted on 07/17/2007 7:31:49 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: TChris

I’ll never forget the “Tang” commercial I heard maybe 15 years ago.........
“Sally Ride.....Tang in Space!”


13 posted on 07/17/2007 7:32:22 AM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (When Bubba lies, the finger flies!)
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To: TChris

The bigger suits also afford better protection from all the space junk that hits the shuttle and men in eva. How do they plan to address that?


14 posted on 07/17/2007 7:32:24 AM PDT by edcoil (Reality doesn't say much - doesn't need too)
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To: Psycho_Bunny
They look funnier than hell but if it works...what an awesome breakthrough!

They tried this approach 40+ years ago, and it didn't work. The most difficult hurdle is not the torso, but rather the hands, for which it is extremely difficult to make suitable gloves based on this technology.

15 posted on 07/17/2007 7:33:28 AM PDT by r9etb
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To: Red Badger

I note the inclusion of knee pads...a wise choice.


16 posted on 07/17/2007 7:38:07 AM PDT by InkYouBuss_007 (This one is escaping the Cuckoo's nest)
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To: r9etb
The more things change....

I didn't know about the previous tries. That's interesting.

One thing I've noticed among engineers I've worked with is a propensity to reinvent the wheel, mostly because they're sure they can design a better wheel than the last guy. Some of them really don't like to use someone else's work, or trust their results.

I wonder if this is a result of the same kind of problem, or if it's simply a result of ignorance of the past attempts. (Libs aren't real keen on history and all that.)

17 posted on 07/17/2007 7:38:49 AM PDT by TChris (The Republican Party is merely the Democrat Party's "away" jersey - Vox Day)
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To: TChris
I wonder if this is a result of the same kind of problem, or if it's simply a result of ignorance of the past attempts.

They think they can do it, what with the advances in materials science. It would be great if they could do it..

18 posted on 07/17/2007 7:46:08 AM PDT by Paradox (They're simply playing all of us, all of them.)
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To: TChris

If you lose pressure your blood literally boils- does she know that? This is a dumb story.


19 posted on 07/17/2007 7:46:57 AM PDT by Mr. K (Some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help)
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To: r9etb
Actually, they mention this later in the article:

The new BioSuit builds on ideas developed in the 1960s and 1970s by Paul Webb, who first came up with the concept for a "space activity suit," and Saul Iberall, who postulated the lines of non-extension. However, neither the technology nor the materials were available then.

20 posted on 07/17/2007 7:48:28 AM PDT by Paradox (They're simply playing all of us, all of them.)
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