Internet Interesting concept comes back.

IMHO the really practical thing in such a suit would be that you can wear normal clothes over them. If they'd be designed comfortably enough (not sure if that's possible) they could be worn like underwear, and you could wear more or less normal clothing over it, depending on tasks. Sure it would look weird to see someone working on the exterior of the ISS with what is by all intents and purposes a normal overall with toolbelt and pockets, but it would be way more practical than the current arrangement.
 
IMHO the really practical thing in such a suit would be that you can wear normal clothes over them. If they'd be designed comfortably enough (not sure if that's possible) they could be worn like underwear, and you could wear more or less normal clothing over it, depending on tasks. Sure it would look weird to see someone working on the exterior of the ISS with what is by all intents and purposes a normal overall with toolbelt and pockets, but it would be way more practical than the current arrangement.
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If the suit itself does not provide adequate thermal/MMOD protection, normal work-clothes might not be sufficient to supply them. In that case some sort of EVA-specific over-suit might be required, but simply slipping into that could be more practical than having to put on a full EVA suit.

Being able to wear the suit most of the time makes the issue of entering or exiting the suit less important, but if it still has to be custom-made to a specific wearer, that is still a problem.
 
but if it still has to be custom-made to a specific wearer, that is still a problem.
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I don't quite see how that would be a problem currently. It's not like we have a great many people going to space regularly. Sure, everyone would need at least one spare, but surely the production wouldn't be an issue here.
 
One of the reasons so few people go into space is because the costs are so prohibitative. It is a pretty important goal to try and decrease costs.

Obviously you're not going to have large numbers of people going on EVA (at least not regularly), but not needing to tailor-make a suit for every single person definitely helps.
 
Using a skinsuit like this on Mars would be essential. It weighs less, it's less reliant on seals that could get fouled by fines/dust, it's much more flexible, and it doesn't need the MMOD protection that an orbital EVA suit needs. It just needs some abrasion resistant layers on the outside that you can leave in a sort of "coat room" outside the airlock.
 
Yeah, and after many years of nearly direct exposure of the skin to the martian atmosphere and the hard vacuum of space. I wonder how the human skin will adapt :) and our physiology evolve.

Maybe we'll develop some very hard skin or something !!

From the wiki article :

Tests of punctures showed that up to a square millimeter of skin could be directly exposed to vacuum for extended periods with no permanent effect.
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One of the many articles I looked at while researching this suit threw some numbers around on the relative US$ cost differences between the BioSuit and a conventional pressure suit. The breakdown was US$ 1+ million per unit for a pressure suit versus a unit price of <100K US$ per BioSuit. I'll see if I can find the article again, and post a link to it.

I also ran into the "Rescue Ball" idea, also known as a bod pod. It's a good idea though the execution may be a bit off. If there's been a major incident involving trauma, you don't want to double someone up into the fetal position and risk further spine injury. Maybe a pressurized version of a Stokes basket litter?

Wayland
 
Tests of punctures showed that up to a square millimeter of skin could be directly exposed to vacuum for extended periods with no permanent effect.
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Well, then it is even better because a little bit torn Bio Suit isn't such immediate emergency as torn and leaking regular presure suit. Even large tear that expose more skin would be more survivable than sudden loss of atmosphere from pressure suit. I suppose since you only have to apply pressure to the skin to prevent injury it would be much more easy to make quick field repair by wrapping damaged part with sufficient amount of duct tape.
 
My apologies, folks! :blush: I either misread or misremembered the price tag for a conventional pressure suit. According to 5 different websites I visited today, the cost of a new, standard issue NASA pressure suit as of 2009 was a minimum of US$12 million. The highest price I found was US$20 million. No types or model numbers of suits were mentioned. I still haven't managed to recover the original website where I found the price of the MIT BioSuit.
 
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