It could be one small step for MIT, one large step toward Mars.
An MIT team is seeking crucial funding for a skin-tight, lightweight futuristic “Bio-Suit” that is a contender for the coveted NASA contract for the next generation of spacewear.
“It is possible that this could be worn by astronauts by the time we go back to the Moon in 2020 and could even be worn on Mars,” said Dr. Dava Newman, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT and leader of the Bio-Suit team.
The project began almost 10 years ago with NASA funding, which has since been scrapped.
Newman’s team is seeking new funding they believe could allow the suit to be put into production in three to five years.
The funding is necessary to allow the team to overcome a space-tailoring hurdle: The suit fits perfectly when exposed to the vacuum of space, but it is extremely tight and difficult to put on on Earth, according to Newman’s assistant James Waldie, a post-doctoral associate on the bio-suit project.
“We need to use active elastics, material which expands and contracts when you want it,” Waldie said. “That is the problem we need to overcome to make this viable.”
The Bio-Suit – named one of Time magazine’s Best Innovations of 2007 – is designed to give astronauts far more mobility than the current bulky, gas-pressured suits.
Astronauts “need to be able to get in and out of rovers, use tools and drills and climb. We just cannot do that with the current capability. This (bio-suit) gives them that kind of mobility,” Newman said.
Among its key innovations, the Bio-Suit applies pressure directly to the skin instead of using bulky air pressure devices to protect humans from the vacuum of space – a system called mechanical counterpressure.
The main function of a spacesuit is to maintain air pressure, or the force exerted on the human body by the weight of the atmosphere, in the airless vacuum of space, or, for instance, in the wafer-thin atmosphere of Mars.
“When we go into the vacuum of the Moon, to keep someone alive we need to be able to provide a third of an atmosphere. That’s what this suit does,” Newman said.
Not only is the bio-suit perfect for exploration and experiments on planet surfaces, it is also a giant leap forward for space fashion, Newman said.
Each suit is mathematically designed and tailor-made to fit individual astronauts, with tight bands of spandex and nylon woven in to provide mobility and stability.
The suits were conceived at MIT, designed by Cambridge company Trotti and Associates and fabricated by Italian firm Dainese.
