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NASA reveals new space suits. To infinity..

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Hitokage

Setec Astronomer
that's great that its flexible, but i honestly cant see when some astronaut is going to be picking up a rock on the ground of any planet, let alone sitting down on one. they're essentially only going to be using these suits in zero g.
I really can't understand why you'd assume such a thing. A large part of Apollo 17 was about astronauts finding and picking up rocks that could best serve to explain the Moon's geological history.
 

C.Dark.DN

Banned
xb682.png
I'm laughing so hard. But, NASA suits can't evoke laughter. It's just wrong. This cannot happen. It's a plot against NASA and NDT.
 
Maybe explain why they are bulky instead of laughing at people who don't know the reason.

The suit has to be inflated to be pressurized since a lack of pressure not air is what kills you quicker during a space walk. Also the suit is incredibly rigid especially in the fingers making manipulating objects difficult which is why they are showing him picking up a rock in the new suit.
 

Drazgul

Member
What a terrible color scheme. How are we supposed to show all those alien bastards that we mean business when our astronauts are wearing that?

This'd be more like it:
JWGBI.jpg
 
What a terrible color scheme. How are we supposed to show all those alien bastards that we mean business when our astronauts are wearing that?

This'd be more like it:
JWGBI.jpg
This awesome color scheme is the start of an evil PMC that sends "anti-nauts" to assassinate targets in space (where no one can hear their screams). Should give that guy a scar over his eye for maximum grizzled effect.

The problem with less garish colors is that they stand out less over the blackness of space. I'm surprised it isn't completely that neon shade of green like green firetrucks, but I maybe there was a deliberate design choice to keep it white to have a modicum of nostalgic appeal.
 

Mato

Member
I like it, it looks pleasant and also there's a cute guy smiling. It's more MIT than Imperial Superpower and I like that.
 
Serious consideration - If that becomes the image of what our children associate with space faring, no kid is ever going to dream of being an astronaut.

I'm sure it serves some practical purpose though.
 
Serious consideration - If that becomes the image of what our children associate with space faring, no kid is ever going to dream of being an astronaut.

I'm sure it serves some practical purpose though.
I wonder if astronauts become for our generation what cowboys were for our parents.

Not that there were buckaroos running around in the 1950 - 1970s, but you had nonstop italian westerns and tv shows glorifying that setting, even though the actual western time period was well before our grandfathers.

We had documentaries like "The Right Stuff" and shuttle launches were still a special thing, but with NASA's marginalization and the probable future of private spaceflight, it won't seem like the image of the heroic astronaut is the glamorous cultural ideal as it once was.


Which is all fine and good, I just hope it's "kids" in the future won't want to be... I don't know, zombies or something stupid.
 

speedpop

Has problems recognising girls
For urination within the suit, they actually use a sort of form-fitting condom. This is one of the reasons the program was reticent for female astronauts for so long. Previously they used catheters.

For the ole' number two, most shuttle living spaces have a space toilet that supposedly doesn't work, and most of the time they have to default to a bag that you hold over your anus, then pull it out manually with your fingers. AND THEN squirt a germicide gel and massage it in, so that the e. coli doesn't expel gas and make the bag explode.

Jim Lowell, the astronaut portrayed by Tom Hanks in Apollo 13, said that you know you're reached a new level of intimacy with a fellow astronaut when you can convince them to work the bag for you.

And now you know!


Another fun piece of trivia is the Russian cosmonaut suits had a cyanide capsule inside, in case they go adrift in space. American suits, by contrast, have snacks for the calories burnt when performing a spacewalk.


Also based on those poses alone, that suit is infinitely more flexible than the current one.
The more you know. The last time I had checked out the space program the entire astronaut phase regarding body excess was nuts. A lot of people don't seem to realize about ordinary body functions up there.

I don't think I would be able to handle it.
 

Kinyou

Member
Will these kinds of suits ever be possible? How come real ones have to be so fluffy/big?

And the lime green in the suit looks awful at least make it black or red.
I think the ones from Prometheus were actually just to protect from a hostile atmosphere. They wouldn't protect them from the huge temperature differences in space.
 
Will these kinds of suits ever be possible? How come real ones have to be so fluffy/big?

And the lime green in the suit looks awful at least make it black or red.

FFS... Hollywood makes no consideration for functionality, practicality, or physics. They're halloween costumes made to look pretty.

Those Prometheus suits don't consider any sort of pressurization, temperature control, radiation, zero-gravity environments, hygiene and countless other factors.
 
I promise I didn't make it up!

I just finished reading a great book about NASA's current plans called "Packing For Mars" and there is a whole chapter is devoted to it. The bag even has a finger cozy for maximum grip potential.

The author didn't go into the exact physics of it, but I can only imagine it perhaps has more to do with the lack of gravity affecting your intestines (which apparently float up into your chest a bit) instead of the role that gravity plays in expelling it. Urine and vomit have much more pressure in their expulsion, and under normal circumstances feces do not. The book is interesting in that it ties it directly into the purposeful design of astronaut nutrition over the years, and trying to maximize calorie intake with a minimum of waste.

Richard Garriott also voices his disdain for the toilet on the ISS in the "Man on a Mission" documentary, although he doesn't go into the gruesome details. Maybe the ISS toilet is significantly different than the more recent ones in the shuttles.

And the cyanide pill thing is pretty amazing when you think that death by asphyxiation is supposedly pretty euphoric as your brain cells die from the lack of oxygen, instead of the torturous burning pain that cyanide causes.

That just blew my mind
 
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