North Dakota students show off Mars spacesuit prototype

We had assumed that with all the robots being developed for deployment to Mars, the human astronauts would mostly be lounging around inside the comfort of their robot-built habitats and ordering drinks from their robot bartenders, but yesterday's unveiling of a prototype spacesuit for navigating the Martian terrain proves that manned missions might not be as cushy as we anticipated. The 50-pound suit (which they somehow got The Office's Steve Carell to model) was designed by students from five North Dakota colleges in a collaborative project funded by a $100,000 NASA grant, and includes at least three innovative technologies for which patents have been filed. Among the slew of sensors and communications gear designed for the harsh, low-gravity environment are oxygen and carbon dioxide detectors, GPS system, full suite of health monitors, shoulder mounted CCD cam, Bluetooth server to coordinate all the data, and a high-power transmitter for beaming info back to the mothership -- though curiously, there's no mention of an onboard weapons system that would be crucial for encounters with the occasional hostile Martian. Also, as the AP helpfully notes, even with all the research and design that went into this project, the forty-odd students seemed to neglect a key feature of any good full-body suit, which is an "escape hatch" for when the astronauts need to "jettison their waste."

[Via futurismic and abc]

[k0an @ May 7th 2006 4:40PM]

I didn't know Steve Carell was studying at North Dakota right now...

[Brian @ May 7th 2006 4:45PM]

Uh... many GPS satellites currently orbit mars?

[abigsmurf @ May 7th 2006 4:46PM]

what use is a GPS system on MARS?

[l @ May 7th 2006 4:55PM]

^^look at these two rocket scientists

[karmaghost @ May 7th 2006 5:01PM]

Why have we placed our astronaut's safety in the hands of North Dakota?

[Collin @ May 7th 2006 5:03PM]

Holy crap, I know that guy, I think he is in my Math 308 class. Cool.

[Tom W @ May 7th 2006 5:49PM]

There's a lot of advertising space available on that suit.

[Aaron @ May 7th 2006 5:54PM]

Is it possible to use bluetooth on mars? Doesn't frequency transmition require air? Pretty sure it does.

[A Nonie Mouse @ Jul 17th 2007 11:36AM]

Oh yea right. That's why all of our wireless communications don't work outside of our atmosphere.

Oh and there is absolutely no air on Mars. None at all.

[Kuro @ Jul 17th 2007 3:49PM]

No, Bluetooth is a radio band protocol, which doesn't require air to operate.

To Nonie Mouse: There ISN'T a whole lot of air on Mars. Its atmosphere is about 0.8% as dense as ours. If you tried to use something that did require air for data transmission (sound, for instance), it probably wouldn't work. And how the heck is he supposed to know if our other wireless communications work outside of our atmosphere? When's the last time you made a phone call to the moon?

The GPS thing is indeed pretty stupid, unless they're planning to put some GPS satellites in Mars orbit before we get there.

[Jerome Demers @ May 7th 2006 5:55PM]

I was wondering the same thing with the GPS! loll

[Brian @ May 7th 2006 6:03PM]

Aaron -

I hope you're kidding. All RF transmissions don't need a medium to travel through other than just space. Their screams, on the other hand, won't get very far on Mars.

[John L @ May 7th 2006 6:03PM]

Umm, two things...

A.) Mars does indeed have an athmosphere (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_%28planet%29#Atmosphere)

B.) Since when does any sort of 'wireless' connection require a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen gas in order to function?

[Admiral Ackbar @ May 7th 2006 6:27PM]

@AAron

You would be thinking of sound my friend. Remeber, light is just "frequency transmission" and that makes it from the sun/moon/stars through the vacuum of space all the way to us.

[Galley @ May 7th 2006 7:29PM]

When I lived in North Dakota, we drank when we were bored...

[furtim @ May 7th 2006 8:11PM]

Crikey, the Engadget comments have hit a new low. What is science education coming to? You kids may as well be debating whether ships that sail over the horizon fall off the edge of the earth or get eaten by sea serpents.

Anyway, if we can have some "big people talk" in here, there isn't necessarily a GPS network in orbit around Mars. But there's well over a decade to establish one before the planned missions to Mars. For that matter, you wouldn't even need a full network. The astronauts will likely be constrained to a fairly small geographic area, which means you could get away with a very small constellation designed to cover just the mission area.

[NeoteriX @ May 7th 2006 8:45PM]

15,

Wow, that's pretty harsh man. Especially when you're proposing something that I think doesn't even make sense. Now I'm putting myself on the line because I'm no GPS expert, but for GPS to be a reality, you need 3-4 satellites in line of site of the position you wish to locate. Satellites "orbit" a planet, instead of being locked in place, so you have to deal with the fact that the satellite will leave the "constrained" area.

Earth has oh, 20+ satellites constantly orbiting earth so that pretty much any spot on Earth will be covered by 3-4 GPS satellites.In other words, without the proper number of satellites for the whole planet, you'll probably end up with a half assed solution that only gives you positioning in intervals.

[blah @ May 7th 2006 9:04PM]

#16: They can put the satellite in a geosynchronous orbit, so that they won't ever "leave" the area.

[Kuro @ Jul 17th 2007 3:51PM]

In the case of Mars, it's "areosynchronous" rather than "geosynchronous."

And there are problems with areosynchronous satellites--specifically, Mars' moon Deimos lies just barely outside of that orbital path. Tidal forces caused by its repeated close passes would screw with any artificial satellite's orbital path and probably send it crashing to the surface (of Mars, or maybe of Deimos!).

[John Stracke @ May 7th 2006 9:06PM]

Providing a GPS constellation for a Mars mission would be trivial. Just make a couple of dozen nanosats and launch them from the mother ship already in orbit.

[Bill @ May 7th 2006 10:17PM]

i think they need to work on getting something other than snow boots to cover their feet since if they cant keep WATER out then they probably cant keep air in

[bigfrank @ May 8th 2006 12:28AM]

and Polo is the official sponsor for the boots! lol

[BS @ May 8th 2006 2:07AM]

FYI, North Dakota has one of this country's premiere space studies programs... Just because there are X million idiots out there who think they are better than North Dakota because of where are from should really look around them and see the crap they really live in. I've worked with people from the North Dakota Space Grant Consortium on a satellite project in the past and there is a good reason why NASA is willing to give them $100k to work on projects like this: because they are competent, have a great work ethic, and are able to think outside the box. Let me tell you, it's quite obvious that Mars doesn't have a GPS network right now, however this isn't a "production" suit and any type of positioning system that does end up in place on Mars will take a lot less effort to put there than the people who will wear these suits.

[CB @ May 8th 2006 3:45AM]

Surely a ground based GPS would be used, of course that kinda rules out the 'Global' bit, so call it a PS system.

[Jesse @ May 8th 2006 6:46AM]

#21. Before you call the North Dakota space programs premier because of a simple 100,000 grant you should pay attention to other grants that are given out. For example, I just finished my research with the Arizona Space Grant Consortium and worked on the Phoenix Mars Lander Mission. It's a mission headed by the University of Arizona and it recieved a 386 million dollar grant. Kind of makes 100,000 dim in comparison. Also, the satelites currently orbiting mars could be used as a makeshift GPS system with only a few other satelites.

[zoara @ May 8th 2006 8:05AM]

Heh. Sometimes I love Engadget comments. I like how NeoteriX (#16) criticises Furtim's (#15) comment and then makes the exact same mistake that Furtim is talking about. At least there's an "I may be wrong" disclaimer, though :)

Oh, and CB (#22), the word "system" rules out the S in PS, so you're now left with a P system. Maybe someone should tell Nintendo.

[Galley @ May 8th 2006 8:16AM]

The University of North Dakota has one of the top college aviation programs in the world. I once took a Space Studies class where Buzz Aldrin was one of the co-professors.
http://www.aero.und.edu/

[BS @ May 8th 2006 10:31AM]

I didn't say that the North Dakota space studies program was THE best, I just said it was one of the best, not based any particular grant... and while this one project was only a $100k grant, there have been other grants (albeit not even close to the size of the Phoenix Lander Mission grant) in the past. I would have to say that the Arizona program is better than that at North Dakota, and in fact I think ND has lost a few faculty members to Arizona, if I remember correctly... It just irritates me that so many people try to act informed on subjects they know nothing about and then imply that "stupid North Dakotans" are somehow doing and inferior job to what they could do.

[Timerider @ May 8th 2006 11:35AM]

Exactly my thoughts, how would GPS work on Mars? Unless they're going to launch a dozen GPS satellites right before going to Mars.

[187 - John Doe @ May 8th 2006 11:40AM]

How does the saying go?
Got no clue? Then STFU.

And just because North Dakota as a state doesn't have that much going for itself although still better than Idaho why should students be less intelligent than in another state?

And honestly does anyone here believe the students aren't smart enough to actually consider if the stuff works. These are physics/science students, they have to know their shit if they get a 100k grant from NASA. NASA doesn't just give out money, ok maybe they do a bit.

[187 - John Doe @ May 8th 2006 1:08PM]

How does the saying go?
Got no clue? Then STFU.

And just because North Dakota as a state doesn't have that much going for itself although still better than Idaho why should students be less intelligent than in another state?

And honestly does anyone here believe the students aren't smart enough to actually consider if the stuff works. These are physics/science students, they have to know their shit if they get a 100k grant from NASA. NASA doesn't just give out money, ok maybe they do a bit.

[CM @ May 8th 2006 3:03PM]

Does this space suit make me look fat?

[geoff @ May 9th 2006 4:39AM]

#31: the answer is yes.