Next Generation Spacesuit Is Flexible And Form Fitting

Earlier this week, we talked about a new soft exosuit that could help a diver explore shipwrecks for longer periods of time before surfacing for some air, and while that exosuit would plumb the depths of the world’s oceans, here we are with a next generation, skintight spacesuit which will help mankind explore in the opposite direction – by looking upward and outward, of course. This unique spacesuit is able to to improve astronaut mobility, helping to provide support while reducing mass compared to existing gas-pressurized models.

Dava Newman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems at MIT, alongside her colleagues, have managed to come up with an engineered active compression garments that will include small, spring-like coils which will contract whenever it is exposed to heat.

These coils were made from a kind of material which is know as a shape-memory alloy (SMA), and it will be able to recall an engineered shape, even when it is bent or deformed, allowing it to return to its pre-programmed shape. Certainly, such a spacesuit would look a whole lot more different from the existing ones that we see being used, as these tend to make one look like Ghostbuster’s Marshmallow Man – stay puft!

Edwin Kee
Categories: General
Tags: Science