Spacesuits get a makeover

Louise Murray covers NASA’s £1 million talent contest to build and demonstrate a prototype lunar lander in Flipside 29. Here she looks at parallel efforts to design a space suit for the rest of us.

The scramble to be the first to put ordinary tourists in space is on. While private space pioneers paid 20 million US dollars for the privilege of spending a week at the International Space Station, those who have a mere 200,000 dollars to spare can set their sights on a hour or so in suborbital space as soon as 2009.  But what to wear for the occasion?

Orbital Outfitters (OO) have the answer, launching the IS3C, the first commercially available suborbital space suit. The suit is designed by Chris Gilman, a Hollywood special effects guru who has designed spacesuits for movies like Space Cowboys and Deep Impact. Chris is backed by a team of aeronautical engineers and space medical experts. Orbital Outfitters is one of a slew of small companies in the ‘New Space’ movement, often staffed by ex-NASA scientists that are determined to see many people in space in the next decade. The first suits go to out to customers soon and will be worn by test pilots trial flying the first rocket powered vehicles for private space tourism.

This is not a suit that you can take a spacewalk in, but is designed to save the wearer in the event of an emergency decompression in the spacecraft cabin. At a mere 20 kilos, it is under half the weight of the equivalent NASA suit, and OO are justifiably proud of their innovative use of modern composite materials.  ‘Our entire helmet weighs less than the neck ring of the NASA suit,’ says Gilman.  ‘Obviously safety is paramount, but people paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to take a trip to space also want to look cool in the photographs.’

The suit has socks instead of standard boots, so you can customise with your choice of footwear from Armani to Doc Martins. The suit also has a sophisticated audio system that integrates with the crew, other passengers and cancels cabin noise.  And by the time the suits are in use in a year or two, they will undoubtedly have a built in iPod connection so that you can listen to your favourite sounds in space.

During your space flight, the suit will be plugged in via an umbilical cord into the vehicle’s life support system with additional backup oxygen in the suit itself, to last up to 15 minutes in an emergency.  The suit is highly customisable and will likely include point of view cameras mounted on the helmet so that wearers can record the entire experience. The IS3 is made up of three layers, one inner, breathable layer to wick sweat away from the body, then a restraining layer to help protect the body from G forces.  These are forces of acceleration expressed as multiples of earth’s gravity. The average space traveller will have to endure 4 to 7 Gs, so will feel like they weigh many times their planetary surface weight, enough to kill the unprotected if it lasts for more than a minute or two.  The outer, stitched layer is made of sewn fire retardant fabric also used in motor racing, has stretch panels under the arms so it is more manoeuvrable, is more body fitting than NASA designs, and is available in any colour. 

But looking cool is not everything, keeping cool when cabin temperatures could reach over 60 Celsius is pretty essential.  The coolant design is secret, but will be similar to those used by Formula 1 drivers in hot climates, where metres of very fine capillary tubes filled with chilled gels run around the torso.  Wearers of heavy costumes in Hollywood films, like the Wookie in Star Wars, have also used cooling suits for which Chris won an Academy Award.  And the US military is testing out similar suits that plug into the air conditioning units of tanks and Humvees in Iraq to keep their crews cool under the desert sun.

Real time biometrics, such as blood pressure and heartbeat, will be monitored by sensors built into the suit, and displayed for the crew to see.  There will also be a head up display in the helmet so that you can check yourself out, but the suit will not be plumbed in to accommodate other bodily functions, as these flights will last less than an hour. There is even an integrated parachute, though its probably not recommended to bailout at 500,000 feet, which will be the peak of the first sub orbital flights.  The highest ever freefall was a jump carried out by pilot Captain Joseph Kittinger from 84,700 feet in 1960 from a balloon.  His hand had to endure temperatures of minus 70 C, when his experimental suit ripped and he reached 714 mph when freefalling.  Fifty seven years later, Kittinger’s record still stands.