Styling In Space

An MIT Team Is Designing A New Kind Of "High Fashion" For Astronauts

(CBS)  Leah Stirling could be dressing up for a night out ... on Mars. She's a graduate student at MIT — the home of the latest design in extra-terrestrial wear that's sleek and flattering, fashionable and functional.

"What does it feel like being in this thing?" asks CBS News correspondent Richard Schlesinger.

"It feels really comfortable," Stirling says. "You have a little echo from the helmet, but other than that, I feel like I can move around."

This suit is about one-tenth as bulky as the ones the astronauts wore on the moon, and it could change the look of space exploration.

"Gas bags" the cynics called them, because the bulky suits are pressurized with gas. Astronauts on space walks will still have to wear them, but they might be able to wear the new kind of suit — made of the high-tech equivalent of spandex — for exploring the surface of the Moon or Mars or planets beyond.

Of course, the suit has to do more than look good; it has to keep astronauts alive and kicking in near-zero gravity. That is a huge problem for a team of engineers at MIT headed by Dava Newman.

How much research has gone into the suit?

"Roughly, a couple of master's degrees, a couple of Ph.D's — and about a decade of our life," Newman said with a laugh.

It is without a doubt the most complicated tailoring job in the history of suit-making. MIT has its own surrogate astronaut — a robot the designers can use to take the precise measurements they need.

The old spacesuits work fine, but they're heavy and bulky. Newman estimates 75 percent of an astronaut's energy is spent just trying to move around.

"We want the suit to work with them, so we want it very, very flexible," Newman said.

Like a finely tailored suit? "Yeah, a very nice, you know, Armani suit."

It's an expensive suit — so far, it has cost more than $500,000, and it still needs a lot of work. But it could well be the next hot outfit designers will send to the stars.

[rushlimpdrug]

They sell these at walmart for $29.99.
Helmet and power ranger boots not included.

[bigteks]

Oops: "it has to keep astronauts alive and kicking in near-zero gravity."

Zero gravity isn't why they wear space suits. It's zero pressure that's the problem.

And while the article talks about "fashion" it's tongue-in-cheek. The issue is flexibility and and functionality.

We need to be in space and we need to keep improving the technology we use there.

[olebd]

More millions spent in the name of new fashion. Thank goodness, it's about time. Maybe they can donate the bulky suits to the needy!

[olebd]

More millions spent in the name of new fashion. Thank goodness, it's about time. Maybe they can donate the bulky suits to the needy!