NASA's new suits are one giant leap for space fashion
By Thomas Ricker 
posted June 13th 2008 8:30AM
posted June 13th 2008 8:30AM
posted June 13th 2008 8:30AM
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OMG! It's Mr. Bubbles! =D
Looking more and more like the cover pictures for 40's and 50's pulp SF magazines were right (at least in the paintings of the male suits).
Didn't I read somewhere that NASA only has about a ten complete space suits? They stock a bunch of parts that they put together to fit a particular person/mission (tops, bottoms, gloves, helmets, mechanicals).
I think it was in an article regarding how NASA was going to have to toss a suit out of the ISS as trash for lack of space to bring it down (old suit, no longer usable). Some one started looking into getting it for a musuem display.
Anyway, so it's likely that we're only talking about 10-15 suits. At a cost of 3/4 of a BILLION dollars. Makes me wonder what the Russians do/spend, everyone remember the story about the NASA space pen?
Except the NASA space pen story is completely fake. Graphite from pencils in a micro-g environment? Bad news for any electronics on Soyuz.
Andrew,
So you're saying the Russians aren't real? Why didn't someone tell me that before... ;)
"Codpiece face!? Who you calling Codpiece face??"
They look like Japanese tourist's with the cameras.
I just saw the picture.(that chick needs to shave. No more bush in 08!)
Michael,
It was Pres. JFK, a Dem, who set the goal in 1961 to reach the Moon within 10 years, and it was his VP LBJ, a Dem, who pushed political support for NASA's requirements. And it was during the subsequent 7 1/2 years of Dem control of the White House and Congress that the Mercury (partly developed under Ike), Gemini and Apollo programs were evolved. Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin reached the Moon in July '69 just 6 months after Nixon (GOP) took office. And it was during the GOP Nixon-Ford years after 1972 that exploration of the Moon was abandoned.
By the way, I'm not a Dem.
- Roger
That suit does look like a downgrade, something from a movie in the 70s.
they had better looking suits in the movie Armageddon. Perhaps nasa should speak with touchstone pictures!
Since when did the moon have an atmosphere and clouds?
What happened to the MIT's "Biosuit?" Doesn't work?
Why did they choose Oceaneering International?
rumour has it Oceaneering International misread the requirements of the contract and will supply elite wetsuit with diamond-encrusted blingage for deep-sea adventure worthy of Jacques Cousteau approval.
I vote for the suits from the movie "2001".
Just remember to bring your helmet.
The current suits look much more.. reassuring.
honestly.. they look like a halloween costume... a very very redickerously expensive halloween costume. someone tell me how all that hard looking plastic stuff around your crotch looks more comfortable than some type of more flexible material? and what the heck is that little button looking thingy? is that the "hatch" for wiping your butt? with all those millions of dollars they spend on designing spacesuits, you think they would get a little mad when a bunch of astronauts just peed all in them. I know I would! And why cant they design a suit you just hook up to the potty? all this money and they just keep peeing on it! lol! ;p
For the moon and any other dusty extraterrestrial chuck-o-rock, there is a huge factor everyone forgets: the dust is highly abrasive. Mars might have smoother dust since the atmosphere there is windy, but maybe not.
When they design these things for use on the moon or Mars, or even out in space, they have to be sure that those sharp little shards of space rock don't get into joints or friction points.
If I were walking around in a vacuum that far from good ol' Earth air, I'd probably think the contract was worth every penny--as long as it worked :D
This baby looks dexterous enough to actually do the moon walk on the moon.
This is much much more interesting, both from a tech and a cheesecake perspective...
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/biosuit-0716.html
Prof. Newman is hot.
It looks like they gave him bicycle shorts and a space vagina.
One thing I guarantee Obama WON'T do is pay someone $745 million for two (2) space suits.
Awesome! I work for a company that provides Oceaneering with some test equipment, so this hopefully means a new contract for me too! :)
-Taylor
OMG People.
The picture is not indicative of ANY design elements of the future suit. NASA isn't even finished defining requirements yet. This is just a picture to give a rough idea of what it may look like.
ALSO - the suit pictured would replace the Orange ACES suit they use for launch, not the traditional suit you think of. That one is the lunar capability suit, which isn't shown in this article.
It'd real velour, let yourself go...
Three quarters of a billion dollars for a few dozen space suits!?
Until all of America's children are no longer hungry, there is no more war in Iraq (at least the US presence there) and there is a viable alternative fuel vehicle put on the road all Americans should be very, very ashamed.
A couple of threads ahead of this they are talking about how the government is "subsidizing" a new plug in hybrid car! How much? 30 MILLION, not 725 Billion!!!
What a laugh.
What's wrong with the current suits? Or the Russian suits? Even the suits used in the '60s worked! It seems like a waste of money to re-design suits. That money would be much better spent on science and experiments.
Astronauts have to pee in the suits - what else can they do on an 8hr+ space walk? And the research into that problem led to the creation of a commonly used dessicate. There is an extremely long list of technologies now widely used that were originated by the space program. Granted, it's very expensive and we have lots of other problems to spend money on to fix, but hey, space is really cool! I would be sad if we stopped exploring it, and as fellow geeks, I bet most of you would too.
NASA needs to get some hip-hop flava up in dem suits. Lugz boots wit iced-out helmets and droopy drawers, fo' da astrohomeys. Word.
Either that, or they could just go with skin tight black patent leather.
i like the one designed by MIT *much* better. [Here](http://www.gadgets-reviews.com/uimg/gadget-mit-space-suit.gif)
Oceaneering is a Commercial Diving outfit. Divers work at more than 1 atmosphere of pressure, are you sure they should be designing a suit that's going to be used in ZERO atmospheres of pressure?
According to the press release, Oceaneering specializes in products for the offshore oil and gas industry. Sounds like another Halliburton getting exclusive and artificially inflated government contracts.
Imagine your bare ass out there, being bombarded with all sorts of space debris, radiation, lost particles, etc. amd then you will understand the pitiful protection these space suits offer our brave astranauts. For all practical purposes, these brave people forsake everything in order to try to increase our knowledge of space and its pittfalls, and there are many, some of which we haven't even begun to understand or even suspect. Try, in your pitiful way, to show some appreciation for their sacrifices on our behalf.
They had to put something black n it........if it was all white .it would be
racist!
That is the worst looking suit I've seen in a long time. Have these guys not watched any sci-fi films in the past 10 years? It looks like H G Wells designed that suit.
In today's PR obsessed world the suits have gotta look cool if you want public support.