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Sci-fi always shows future space suits as either bulky pressure tanks or mech suits

Former NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman developed the BioSuit, which uses mechanical (textile-based) counterpressure instead of the traditional gas-pressurized mini-spacecraft approach

Humans live at 1 atm on Earth, but in a pure oxygen environment like a space suit or station, ~0.3 atm is enough. The BioSuit has reached ~0.25 atm in lower body prototypes, close to 0.3 atm in areas like the calves and thighs, although joints are still well below target

We are more likely to see something like this with advanced AR and AI integrated helmets in the future IMO

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Discussion

Leo Wandersleb 4mo ago

Interesting! I never thought of humans thriving at 0.3atm.

ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ ᴏꜰ ᴍʟᴇᴋᴜ 4mo ago

i think so long as the lungs are inflated the rest of the body can withstand a much lower atmospheric pressure (higher, also, which is why that liquid oxygen dissolving material like was depicted in The Abyss exists, as it stops the pressure of deep under sea). the lungs are the main thing that restricts our range at altitude and depth.

i doubt it would be pleasant to be more than a few hours with most of your body at that level of pressure though, in either direction.

Fryheid 4mo ago

And also the potential longer term disease risk caused by your body being unable to function as intended for extended periods of time

ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ ᴏꜰ ᴍʟᴇᴋᴜ 4mo ago

it is more complex though, and complexity exposes greater numbers of failure modes.

out in space, a device that depends on electrical induced tension in a material will be very vulnerable to a sudden burst of RF energy. shielding the critical parts of a conventional space suit is much easier, and the weight, i mean, come on. in zero gravity the weight of the suit doesn't matter much if it doesn't weigh more than the weight of the astronaut. it just impacts the energy required to change momentum.

i can see this type of electro-tension material being useful for robots, tho, but for space suits i'd say it's too many ways to go wrong.

ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ ᴏꜰ ᴍʟᴇᴋᴜ 4mo ago

i mean, i could be wrong and it's just flexible but not very stretchy but looking at the picture it seems to me to accommodate this level of skin tightness with the vacuum sucking everything outward, no, it's not just stiff, because it wouldn't be comfortable.

maybe you could do a passively vacuum resistant material *precisely fitted* to someone's body, like total tailored job, with flexible areas that are designed so as to not become a point of expansion, but nah, really, i think it's obvious these are artificial muscle fibres and that means electricity and EMF vulnerability.