Boeing is one of the few enterprises that are moving towards the successful privatization of space flights. The company is slated to start on its crewed spaceflight missions soon and preparations are underway to ensure that everything goes off as smoothly as possible. While the company is working on its rockets on it own, it has partnered up with David Clark Company so as to create spacesuits for the journeys its astronauts will be taking.
Boeing’s suit was actually unveiled earlier in the year, however, TechCrunch managed to get a closer look at it and what lies before the eyes is certainly impressive. The greatest improvement that can be seen is in terms of mass. We remember astronauts spacesuits as bulky thing, that look able to accommodate as many as 2 to 3 people. However, these spacesuits are significantly toned down in terms of sheer bulk. Among other things, this has been made possible by removing all the extras that aren’t absolutely necessary for astronauts to survive in the depths of space.
The suit is highly advanced and packs Hi-tech things like touchscreen gloves and lightweight shoes. Indeed, take a good look at the shoes and you will be reminded of someone’s tennis sneakers. The rest of the suit is just as lightweight and stands at sharp contrast from the original, orange and bulky suit NASA deploys for its astronauts.
The original suit for instance, is several layers of thin clothing, not one big suit an astronaut climbs into and zips up. Indeed, it often takes astronauts as long as half hour to climb in and zip into. And it might surprise you to know that one of these layers of clothing actually has water tubes running through them in order to keep the man or woman inside cool. These new Boeing spacesuits on the other hand, let go of everything even remotely superfluous without compromising on the safety of the person inside.
The Starliner spacesuit provides greater pressurized mobility and is about 40 percent lighter than previous suits. Its innovative layers will keep astronauts cooler as well. The touchscreen-friendly gloves allow astronauts to interact with the capsule’s tablets while the boots are breathable and slip resistant. Zippers in the torso area will make it easier for astronauts to comfortably transition from sitting to standing. In addition to protecting astronauts during launch and the return to Earth, the suit also helps connect astronauts to ground and space crews through the communications headset within the helmet. The suit’s hood-like soft helmet sports a wide polycarbonate visor to give Starliner passengers better peripheral vision throughout their ride to and from space.
As far as the date when the company can be expected to first deploy them in a real situation is concerned, well, early 2018 makes a good case for itself.
