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Gallery: What Will Future Astronauts Wear in Space?

Future generations of space suits will function like walking spaceships, complete with toilets

Posted 10.12.09 at 4:00 pm 3 Comments

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New Spacesuit System
NASA
Oceaneering International Inc. of Houston has a contract with NASA to begin work on the design, development and production of a new spacesuit system for the Constellation Program. The system will protect astronauts during voyages to the International Space Station and exploration of the moon's surface during missions taking place a decade from now.
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Technology, moon, nasa, space, spacesuits
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Prototype Testing
NASA
Astronauts, engineers and scientists wore prototype spacesuits, drove prototype lunar rovers and simulated scientific work recently at Moses Lake, Washington as part of NASA's demonstration of concepts for living and working on the lunar surface, looking ahead to missions to the moon slated for 2020.
Tags
Technology, moon, nasa, space, spacesuits
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3 Comments

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quasi44

10/27/09 at 8:07 pm

This has been up for two weeks now, no comments. I guess maybe people are kinda ambivalent when they don't see the advantages of a design over the one currently in use. So we have to make a new one for Mars, right? Due to temp. What about the grit size? Will we be utilizing any kind of a power exoskeleton with any of the suit types anticipated for our next generation?

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WindSmak

11/05/09 at 9:10 am

I'm sorry, but I simply don't understand how when we've FINALLY gotten around to designing a new space suit for our brave astronauts, that we fail to see the benefit of putting some sort of rebreather into the suit, to help elongate the amount of oxygen and thus time they have while performing EVA's. The technology is there! Scuba divers use it all the time. Not to mention that many advances have been made in understanding and replicating the process of photosynthesis. How is this not one of the highest priorities on the designers checklists?

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