Dava Newman: Space Suit of the Future
00:00:00.000 | - So you've done a lot of exciting research,
00:00:03.520 | design, engineering on spacesuits.
00:00:06.780 | What does the spacesuit of the future look like?
00:00:10.940 | - Well, if I have anything to say about it,
00:00:12.360 | it'll be a very tight-fitting suit.
00:00:15.100 | We use mechanical counterpressure
00:00:16.700 | to pressurize right directly on the skin.
00:00:18.900 | Seems that it's technically feasible.
00:00:20.700 | We're still at the research and development stage.
00:00:22.220 | We don't have a flight system,
00:00:23.540 | but technically it's feasible,
00:00:24.820 | so we do a lot of work in the materials.
00:00:26.740 | What materials do we need to pressurize someone?
00:00:29.220 | What's the patterning we need?
00:00:30.580 | That's what our patents are in,
00:00:31.620 | the patterning, kind of how we apply this.
00:00:33.700 | It's a third of an atmosphere.
00:00:35.300 | - Just to sort of take a little step back,
00:00:37.100 | you have this incredible bio suit
00:00:38.460 | where it's tight-fitting,
00:00:40.100 | so it allows more mobility and so on.
00:00:42.260 | So maybe even to take a bigger step back,
00:00:44.100 | like what are the functions that a spacesuit should perform?
00:00:47.300 | - Sure, so start from the beginning.
00:00:49.460 | A spacesuit is the world's smallest spacecraft.
00:00:52.140 | So I really, that's the best definition I can give you.
00:00:54.320 | Right now we fly gas-pressurized suits,
00:00:56.100 | but think of developing and designing an entire spacecraft.
00:01:00.100 | So then you take all those systems
00:01:01.620 | and you shrink them around a person,
00:01:03.460 | provide them with oxygen debris,
00:01:04.900 | scrub out their carbon dioxide,
00:01:07.100 | make sure they have pressure.
00:01:07.980 | They need a pressure environment to live in.
00:01:09.560 | So really the spacesuit is a shrunken spacecraft
00:01:13.900 | in its entirety, has all the same systems.
00:01:15.580 | - Communication as well, probably.
00:01:16.980 | - Yeah, communications, exactly.
00:01:19.280 | So you really, thermal control,
00:01:21.920 | little bit of radiation, not so much radiation protection,
00:01:23.780 | but thermal control, humidity, oxygen debris.
00:01:25.860 | So all those life support systems
00:01:27.580 | as well as the pressure production.
00:01:29.500 | So it's an engineering marvel,
00:01:31.380 | the spacesuits that have flown
00:01:32.380 | because they really are entire spacecraft,
00:01:34.260 | that is small spacecraft that we have around a person,
00:01:36.900 | but they're very massive,
00:01:38.620 | but 140 kilos the current suit,
00:01:40.820 | and they're not mobility suits.
00:01:42.220 | So since we're going back to the moon and Mars,
00:01:43.900 | we need a planetary suit, we need a mobility suit.
00:01:46.340 | So that's where we've kind of flipped the design paradigm.
00:01:49.520 | I study astronauts, I study humans in motion,
00:01:52.500 | and if we can map that motion,
00:01:54.100 | I wanna give you full flexibility,
00:01:55.580 | move your arms and legs.
00:01:56.980 | I really want you to be like a Olympic athlete,
00:01:59.500 | an extreme explorer.
00:02:01.340 | I don't wanna waste any of your energy,
00:02:03.100 | so we take it from the human design.
00:02:04.980 | So I take a look at humans,
00:02:06.380 | we measure them, we model them,
00:02:07.900 | and then I say, "Okay, can I put a spacesuit on them
00:02:10.820 | "that goes from the skin out?"
00:02:12.060 | So rather than a gas pressurized shrinking
00:02:14.300 | that spacecraft around the person,
00:02:16.660 | say, "Here's how humans perform.
00:02:18.200 | "Can I design a spacesuit literally from the skin out?"
00:02:20.860 | So that's what we've come up with,
00:02:22.500 | mechanical counterpressure, some patterning,
00:02:24.260 | and that way it could be order of magnitude less
00:02:27.140 | in terms of the mass,
00:02:28.860 | and it should provide maximum mobility for Moon or Mars.
00:02:32.420 | - What's mechanical counterpressure?
00:02:33.940 | Like, how the heck can you even begin
00:02:36.740 | to create something that's tight-fitting?
00:02:39.380 | And still doesn't protect you from the elements and so on,
00:02:42.860 | and the whole pressure thing?
00:02:44.740 | - That's the challenge, it's a big design challenge.
00:02:46.500 | We've been working on it for a while.
00:02:47.620 | So you can either put someone in a balloon,
00:02:49.180 | that's one way to do it, that's conventional,
00:02:50.680 | that's the only thing we've ever done.
00:02:51.520 | - What's that mean?
00:02:52.340 | That means the balloon that you fill with gas?
00:02:53.180 | - That's a gas pressurized suit.
00:02:54.000 | So if you put someone in a balloon,
00:02:54.840 | it's only a third of an atmosphere to keep someone alive.
00:02:57.460 | So that's what the current system is.
00:02:58.620 | So depending on what units you think,
00:03:00.180 | in 30 kilopascals, 4.3 pounds per square inch.
00:03:03.100 | - So much less than the pressure that's on Earth.
00:03:06.020 | You can still keep a human alive with 0.3,
00:03:09.580 | and it's alive and happy.
00:03:11.380 | - Alive and happy, and you mix the gases.
00:03:13.620 | Do you need, here, we're having this chat,
00:03:15.540 | and we're at one sea level in Boston at one atmosphere.
00:03:19.340 | But a suit--
00:03:20.180 | - Oxygen and nitrogen.
00:03:21.260 | - Oxygen and nitrogen, and you put a suit,
00:03:23.140 | if we put someone to a third of an atmosphere,
00:03:25.680 | so for mechanical counter pressure now,
00:03:27.320 | so one way is to do it with a balloon,
00:03:29.240 | and that's what we currently have.
00:03:30.680 | Or you can apply the pressure directly to the skin.
00:03:32.920 | I only have to give you a third of an atmosphere.
00:03:36.480 | Right now, you and I are very happy in one atmosphere.
00:03:39.360 | So if I put that pressure, a third of an atmosphere on you,
00:03:42.300 | I just have to do it consistently,
00:03:44.360 | across all of your body and your limbs,
00:03:46.400 | and it'll be a gas pressurized helmet.
00:03:48.600 | Doesn't make sense to shrink wrap the head.
00:03:51.000 | See the blue man group?
00:03:51.840 | That's a great act.
00:03:53.520 | But we don't need to,
00:03:54.360 | there's no benefits of shrink wrapping the head.
00:03:56.840 | You put a gas pressurized helmet,
00:03:58.920 | because the helmet, then, the future of suits,
00:04:01.160 | you asked me about,
00:04:02.000 | the helmet just becomes your information portal.
00:04:04.480 | So it will have augmented reality.
00:04:06.240 | It'll have all the information you need.
00:04:08.180 | Should have the maps that I need.
00:04:09.880 | I'm on the moon.
00:04:10.800 | Okay, well, hey, smart helmet.
00:04:12.560 | Then show me the map, show me the topography.
00:04:14.720 | Hopefully it has the lab embedded, too.
00:04:16.400 | If it has really great cameras,
00:04:18.000 | maybe I can see with that regolith.
00:04:19.400 | That's just lunar dust and dirt.
00:04:20.880 | What's that made out of?
00:04:22.000 | We talked about the water.
00:04:23.320 | So the helmet, then, really becomes this information portal,
00:04:26.360 | is how I see the IT architecture of the helmet,
00:04:29.620 | is really allowing me to use all of my modalities
00:04:34.620 | of an explorer that I'd like to.
00:04:36.360 | So cameras, voiceover, images.
00:04:38.880 | If it were really good,
00:04:39.700 | it would have lab capabilities, as well.
00:04:43.080 | - Okay, so the pressure comes from the body,
00:04:45.040 | comes from the mechanical pressure, which is fascinating.
00:04:48.320 | Now, what aspect, when I look at bio-suit,
00:04:50.720 | just the suits you're working on,
00:04:52.320 | sort of from a fashion perspective, they look awesome.
00:04:55.480 | Is that a small part of it, too?
00:04:58.560 | - Oh, absolutely, 'cause the teams that we work with,
00:05:01.040 | of course, I'm an engineer, there's engineering students,
00:05:03.320 | there's design students, there's architects.
00:05:05.120 | So it really is very much a multidisciplinary team.
00:05:07.640 | So sure, colors, aesthetics, materials,
00:05:11.280 | all those things we pay attention to.
00:05:12.760 | So it's not just an engineering solution.
00:05:14.760 | It really is a much more holistic, it's a suit.
00:05:17.760 | It's a suit, you're dressed in a suit now.
00:05:20.280 | It's a form-fitting.
00:05:21.560 | So we really have to pay attention to all those things.
00:05:24.120 | And so that's the design team that we work with.
00:05:27.280 | And my partner, Ghetradi, we're partners in this,
00:05:30.040 | in terms of, he comes from an architecture,
00:05:32.280 | industrial design background.
00:05:33.920 | So bringing those skills to bear, as well.
00:05:35.940 | We team up with industry folks
00:05:37.400 | who are in athletic performance and designers.
00:05:40.840 | So it really is a team
00:05:42.320 | that brings all those skills together.
00:05:44.120 | - So what role does the spacesuit play
00:05:46.780 | in our long-term staying in Mars,
00:05:49.160 | sort of exploring the,
00:05:51.040 | doing all the work that astronauts do,
00:05:52.440 | but also perhaps civilians one day,
00:05:55.280 | almost like taking steps towards colonization of Mars?
00:05:57.940 | What role does a spacesuit play there?
00:05:59.560 | - So you always need a life support system,
00:06:02.200 | pressurized habitat.
00:06:03.260 | And I like to say, we're not going to Mars to sit around.
00:06:06.280 | So you need a suit.
00:06:07.960 | Even if you land and have the lander,
00:06:10.000 | you're not going there to stay inside.
00:06:11.560 | That's for darn sure.
00:06:12.400 | We're going there to search for the evidence of life.
00:06:14.040 | That's why we're going to Mars.
00:06:15.220 | So you need a lot of mobility.
00:06:16.880 | So for me, the suit is the best way
00:06:19.200 | to give the human mobility.
00:06:20.720 | We're always still going to need rovers.
00:06:22.360 | We're going to need robots.
00:06:23.520 | So for me, exploration is always a suite of explorers.
00:06:27.240 | Some people are going to,
00:06:28.080 | some of the suite of explorers are humans,
00:06:29.680 | but many are going to be robots, smart systems,
00:06:32.860 | things like that.
00:06:33.700 | But I look at it as kind of all those capabilities together
00:06:36.320 | make the best exploration team.
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