FYI,

"One Giant Leap for Space Fashion: MIT Team Designs Sleek, Skintight
Spacesuit"
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/biosuit-0716.html

: In the 40 years that humans have been traveling into space, the
: suits they wear have changed very little. The bulky,
: gas-pressurized outfits give astronauts a bubble of protection, but
: their significant mass and the pressure itself severely limit
: mobility.

: Dava Newman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and
: engineering systems at MIT, wants to change that.

: Newman is working on a sleek, advanced suit designed to allow
: superior mobility when humans eventually reach Mars or return to
: the moon. Her spandex and nylon BioSuit is not your grandfather's
: spacesuit--think more Spiderman, less John Glenn.

: Traditional bulky spacesuits "do not afford the mobility and
: locomotion capability that astronauts need for partial gravity
: exploration missions. We really must design for greater mobility
: and enhanced human and robotic capability," Newman says.

: Newman, her colleague Jeff Hoffman, her students and a local design
: firm, Trotti and Associates, have been working on the project for
: about seven years. Their prototypes are not yet ready for space
: travel, but demonstrate what they're trying to achieve--a
: lightweight, skintight suit that will allow astronauts to become
: truly mobile lunar and Mars explorers.

: Newman anticipates that the BioSuit could be ready by the time
: humans are ready to launch an expedition to Mars, possibly in about
: 10 years. Current spacesuits could not handle the challenges of
: such an exploratory mission, Newman says.

: A New Approach

: 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.

: Over the past 40 years, spacesuits have gotten progressively
: heavier, and they now weigh in at about 300 pounds. That bulk
: -- much of which is due to multiple layers and the life support
: system coupled with the gas-pressurization -- severely constrains
: astronauts' movements. About 70 to 80 percent of the energy they
: exert while wearing the suit goes towards simply working against
: the suit to bend it.

: "You can't do much bending of the arms or legs in that type of
: suit," Newman says.

: When an astronaut is in a micro-gravity environment (for example,
: doing a spacewalk outside the International Space Station), working
: in such a massive suit is manageable, but, as Newman says, "It's a
: whole different ballgame when we go to the moon or Mars, and we
: have to go back to walking and running, or loping."

: Another advantage to her BioSuit is safety: if a traditional
: spacesuit is punctured by a tiny meteorite or other object, the
: astronaut must return to the space station or home base
: immediately, before life-threatening decompression occurs. With the
: BioSuit, a small, isolated puncture can be wrapped much like a
: bandage, and the rest of the suit will be unaffected.

: Newman says the finished BioSuit may be a hybrid that incorporates
: some elements of the traditional suits, including a gas-pressured
: torso section and helmet. An oxygen tank can be attached to the
: back.

: The MIT researchers are focusing on the legs and arms, which are
: challenging parts to design. In the Man-Vehicle Lab at MIT,
: students test various wrapping techniques, based on 3D models
: they've created of the human in motion and how the skin stretches
: during locomotion, bending, climbing or driving a rover.

: 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.

: To be worn in space, the BioSuit must deliver close to one-third
: the pressure exerted by Earth's atmosphere, or about
: 30 kPa (kilopascals). The current prototype suit exerts about
: 20 KPa consistently, and the researchers have gotten new models up
: to 25 to 30 KPa.

: Staying in Shape

: The suits could also help astronauts stay fit during the six-month
: journey to Mars. Studies have shown that astronauts lose up to
: 40 percent of their muscle strength in space, but the new outfits
: could be designed to offer varying resistance levels, allowing the
: astronauts to exercise against the suits during a long flight to
: Mars.

: Although getting the suits into space is the ultimate goal, Newman
: is also focusing on Earth-bound applications in the short term,
: such as athletic training or helping people walk.

: 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.

: "Dr. Webb had a great idea, before its time. We're building on that
: work to try to make it feasible," says Newman.

: The project was initially funded by the NASA Institute for Advanced
: Concepts.

Mark Reiff