Astronauts of our dreams
It is no surprise that as technology has advanced, so has every imaginable facet of technological equipment, including but not limited to clothes.
Billionaire and “real life Tony Stark” Elon Musk has recently unveiled the first photo of SpaceX’s new spacesuit, and let’s just say damn, it’s pretty sexy.
The new suit
The suit is sleek white with gray accents and a white helmet complete with a large, tinted face-shield; kind of like something you might see Daft Punk rocking. What makes the suit even more noteworthy is that it was designed by founder and lead designer of Ironhead Studios, Jose Fernandez.
While the suits aren’t designed for extravehicular activity (floating through space) or leaving the spaceship (while in space), the suits are much slimmer as there is no need to carry oxygen or needed protection against the threats of environmental terrain.
Elegant and functional, the new suit was designed with practicality and aesthetics in mind, of which was quite the task for Musk.
“Was incredibly hard to balance esthetics and function,” he said on his Instagram post of the design, “[e]asy to do either separately.” And as he also stated on the image he posted to Instagram: this isn’t a mock up. It’s the fully double-vacuum pressure tested real deal.
The suit is intended to be used for those who will be boarding the SpaceX crewed version of the Dragon Capsule, expected sometime in 2018 – or so we hope.
So galactic explorers and future Mars colonists stay tuned, this is what you’re in for.
Boeing, also in the great race to bring more humans into space, has also unveiled a new suit of their own in January. While the blue is traditional to Boeing, the suit itself looks more equipped for deep-sea diving, and so I have to give design kudos to SpaceX on this one, even if their boots weren’t designed by Reebok.
Imagination space station
Can you imagine how awesome the SpaceX astronauts will look walking down the access arm wearing one of these?
And perhaps the even bigger question, will there be commercial versions of these jackets and helmets we can get our hands on?
#HeyGoodLookin<
