Quote from: Lars-J on 09/22/2015 07:38 pmIt's photoShopped. The word comes from the software Photoshop.Since Photoshop is not the only software you can use for this purpose, photochopping is a broader descriptive.
It's photoShopped. The word comes from the software Photoshop.
I don't understand why spacex is doing this in house.There's no synergy with anything else they're building and space suits are available more or less off the shelf from established manufacturers who have economies of scale.
Quote from: arachnitect on 09/22/2015 10:16 pmI don't understand why spacex is doing this in house.There's no synergy with anything else they're building and space suits are available more or less off the shelf from established manufacturers who have economies of scale.Weren't they doing this together with Orbital Outfitters?
Quote from: Dante80 on 09/22/2015 10:23 pmQuote from: arachnitect on 09/22/2015 10:16 pmI don't understand why spacex is doing this in house.There's no synergy with anything else they're building and space suits are available more or less off the shelf from established manufacturers who have economies of scale.Weren't they doing this together with Orbital Outfitters?Yeah. And once upon a time they had Barber-Nichols building turbopumps, Spincraft building propellant tank domes, and Cimarron Composites building helium tanks, too.Perhaps an object lesson for vendors...
I don't know if it's a genuine suit or not, but Nikolay Moiseev from Final Frontier Design, who was involved with the design of both the Sokol and Orlan space suits back in Russia, responded to my parallel post on the unofficial SpaceX Facebook group and had the following to say about the photo and video:"TIGHT FIT HELMET HAS A PROBLEM WITH CO2 WASHOUT . THE VISOR CLOSE TO THE FACE WILL BE COVERED WITH FOG FROM BREATH. The proposed helmet does not have the neck ring/neck disconnect as ACES, so it has some new closure? If you have conformal (close fit as motorbike style) helmet, you have to have neck bearing and neck joint......."
It's not clear what the goals of this suit project are.1) Just protect Dragon crew in the case of emergency depressurization?2) Will it be capable of full EVA?3) Is it intended to work on Mars?My understanding is that much of the bulk of a suit is an outer layer intended for micrometeoroid protection. If the suit doesn't need to be EVA-capable then maybe all you need is a pressure suit as for high altitude aircraft or project Mercury. This seems more consistent with the pictures we've seen.It's not clear if micrometeoroid protection is required on Mars to the same extent. The thin atmosphere might provide some protection.
I don't understand why spacex is doing this in house.
There's no synergy with anything else they're building and space suits are available more or less off the shelf from established manufacturers who have economies of scale.
spacex has a machine shop. Do they have a sewing shop as well?
Quote from: HMXHMX on 09/22/2015 10:30 pmQuote from: Dante80 on 09/22/2015 10:23 pmQuote from: arachnitect on 09/22/2015 10:16 pmI don't understand why spacex is doing this in house.There's no synergy with anything else they're building and space suits are available more or less off the shelf from established manufacturers who have economies of scale.Weren't they doing this together with Orbital Outfitters?Yeah. And once upon a time they had Barber-Nichols building turbopumps, Spincraft building propellant tank domes, and Cimarron Composites building helium tanks, too.Perhaps an object lesson for vendors...spacex has a machine shop. Do they have a sewing shop as well?Forgot about Orbital Outfitters, that makes a little more sense. But spacex is basically their only client.
Didn't sewing machine oil caused a Dragon delay once? So I assume they do have sewing shop...
And their volume isn't going to be significant for decades, when NASA astronauts fly to ISS on Dragon I'm sure NASA will have them wearing NASA made IVA suits. A single SpaceX 'pilot' is the most they will ever ride on the Dragon so SpaceX needs literally just 1 suit until they are landing people on Mars, a company doing space tourism like Virgin Galactic or Blue Origins would need a much larger volume as the customer won't have their own suit.
It really makes no sense for SpaceX to bring suit production in-house. The skill set is very specialized and totally different from any of their existing employee bases, their are 'New Space' startups doing the same thing and offering products at very attractive prices that they could buy right now for what amounts to spare change. Even with all the massive consolidation in our Airo-space industry the suits are And their volume isn't going to be significant for decades, when NASA astronauts fly to ISS on Dragon I'm sure NASA will have them wearing NASA made IVA suits. A single SpaceX 'pilot' is the most they will ever ride on the Dragon so SpaceX needs literally just 1 suit until they are landing people on Mars, a company doing space tourism like Virgin Galactic or Blue Origins would need a much larger volume as the customer won't have their own suit.
Quote from: arachnitect on 09/22/2015 10:16 pmThere's no synergy with anything else they're building and space suits are available more or less off the shelf from established manufacturers who have economies of scale.I'm not aware there is economy of scale for spacesuits, it's not like people are lining up to buy them. Looks to me SpaceX represents 50% of the US market for this type of suits.
[...] Still, you do what you can. And so this Monday evening, his mind is on space suits. Right now, specifically, he needs to go see the latest secret prototype of a new kind of space suit—the first to be made by a private rocket company for astronauts to wear into orbit and beyond, which he hopes will go into use in 2017."We're trying to have a good balance between aesthetics and functionality," he explains, sitting in his office at SpaceX. "It's tricky to have something that works in reality and looks good."As with much of what Musk does, there is a plan, but then, behind that, there's often a bigger plan. To Musk, it's obvious that this new space suit not only needs to work well but also needs to look cool, because he needs people—regular people like you and me—to imagine themselves wearing it."If we're to inspire the next generation to want to go beyond Earth," he says, "they have to think they want to wear that suit one day. The easiest way to make a pressure suit work is to make it very bulky, and have lots of sort of things poking out." He laughs, and then offers another illustration that the way Elon Musk's mind works is both quite brilliant and quite entertainingly unusual. "Actually," he says, "one of the more embarrassing things about space suits is that the backside kind of pooches out pretty bad. I don't know if you've seen any of the Soyuz space suits?"I concede that I can't bring to mind a rear view."That's because they never show you that angle!" he says, as though vindicated. "It's really bad." Then he swivels round to the computer behind him and actually does a Google image search to show me. "You can barely stand upright," he says, scrolling. All the views that come up are head-on, but this, he proclaims with satisfaction, only proves his point. "They always kind of avoid the side image."He also explains the underlying physics dilemma: "Imagine that you've got to be able to bend over, but it's rigid material—then, when you stand up, it's gonna pooch out really significantly in the back. So we wanted to have something which would not do that."So, I ask, you can mitigate big-butt space syndrome?"Yeah," he replies, though a little uncertainly, as if he's not quite convinced I've accurately outlined the technical parameters of the problem. "We just wanted it to look good. Feel good."Do your suits look anything like space suits have looked before?"They look a bit more like space suits in the movies," he says. "If you've seen an advanced space suit in the movies, it looks a bit more like that. Unfortunately those things don't work. They just work in Hollywood."[...]No one outside of a few select insiders has seen the suit, I am told, but eventually he invites me to come take a look, as long as I don't describe the suit itself.[...]We head into one of these areas now, until we reach a glass-walled room identified as space-suit development.Inside, a man is waiting, a little awkwardly, in a next-generation SpaceX astronaut suit, visor open. He stands there for the next 20 minutes as Musk and his team discuss it. Other versions, presumably earlier or alternative prototypes, hang on a rack in the back of the room. Musk is not at all overbearing, but he asks a lot of very specific questions—about fabrics, about colors, about placements—and he makes comments about what is and is not flattering. They discuss some of the practical constraints imposed by the fact that this suit has to work in space. There's also quite a lot of laughter. Musk seems both pleased and dissatisfied with what he is seeing; he has plenty of suggestions for improvements. Still, I think it would be fair to say that his description—more like space suits in the movies—is a pretty good one. And I trust he won't mind my observing that there is no sign whatsoever of pooching.