The Future of Space Suits
NASA’s space suits haven’t fundamentally changed much in a long time. They’re basically tough balloons that get filled with you and a gas that provides the right amount of pressure to keep you’re body healthy in the vacuum of space.
This is changing. Dava Newman, professor at MIT is currently adding the finishing touches to her new space suit design - and NASA’s very interested.
Basically, instead of floating around in a stiff balloon, the spacesuit would provide an alternative to atmospheric pressure by using special coils that tighten into your exact body shape when they feel heat.
The space suit will make moving around infinitely (not literal) easier. It will also make space travel ridiculously in-style.
Putting on a space suit would be more akin to donning spandex than getting into a “you-shaped space ship”.
It gets even more cool. There are plans to add sensors and actuators to the suits, these mechanical devices that enhance and empower movement when they feel it:
To put simply, the potential is to give whoever wears the space suit their own little piece of super human strength.
Just FYI to all you space naysayers, the implications in the medical world are huge too. Let one’s imagination go to work.