It's difficult. A spacesuit is like a miniature spaceship and your life depends on it. As in the recent example of an astronaut who nearly drowned in his spacesuit. Spacesuit Leak That Nearly Drowned Astronaut Could Have Been Avoided If pressurized it has to hold in tons of pressure per square meter. The gloves are especially challenging, because of all that pressure, to get a reasonable amount of mobility so you can move your fingers.
Dava Newman has designed maybe the most innovative modern spacesuit, but it hasn't flown in space yet.
See also: Why Can't We Design the Perfect Spacesuit?
If you spend a long time in a spacesuit then you have the risk of cosmic radiation increasing risk of lifetime cancer. And nobody has yet found a portable "forcefield" to keep them out. They are highly energetic and can only really be kept out by thick layers of water and other materials - and I mean there meters thick layers, not practical for a spacesuit. For the lower energy but more deadly solar storms, which will be more of a problem as humans venture beyond LEO then some magnetic protection may be possible for a spaceship similarly to the way the Earth's magnetic field protects astronauts in the ISS, but nobody has perfected anything yet - and nowhere near being able to make a mobile unit for a spacesuit to protect against solar storms.
As telerobotics gets better, it's possible that spacesuits may become something of a thing of the past used only in emergency. Because if you can do everything via telerobotics, like controlling an avatar in a game - why send humans outside in person? Doesn't endanger anyone, and the robotic hands can eventually be as mobile as a real hand with some recent ideas for ways of making them - and none of the problems of pressurized gloves - and with haptic feedback you'd feel things more sensitively than you can through a pressurized glove. And can be equipped with digitally enhanced vision so you actually see and sense your surroundings better than you would in a spacesuit. And everything you see automatically streamed in real time so everyone can see what you see just as you see it if they want to or need to.
If that happens then typical settlements on the Moon say would be underground, maybe in a lunar cavern, with the humans controlling robotic avatars on the surface, indeed the Moon is close enough so that using similar methods to those used by gamers to interact with each other real time in online games despite communications delays, we may well do a lot of it by telerobotic operation from Earth itself.
We could also do telerobotic exploration from settlements in orbit around the body - or in the L1 or L2 positions near the Moon, as those also could be protected with meters thick layers of shielding if necessary.
So- I expect spacesuits to improve. But also likely to be used less in future with spacewalks for routine repairs or things like constructing or repairing habitats, or indeed for space exploration and discovery too, as we'd use telerobots instead as they become easier to use. Plus also with a level of autonomy too so you could have many robotic avatars and I'd see a not too distant human outpost in the solar system as a bit like civilization type games, a few humans, lots of avatars and typically you leave one of them doing some routine task while you then telejump to another one, so the humans only do the most challenging and interesting things that need to be done. And occasionally you might get into a spacesuit for something you can't do any other way - or for recreation, or in an emergency.
Dava Newman has designed maybe the most innovative modern spacesuit, but it hasn't flown in space yet.
See also: Why Can't We Design the Perfect Spacesuit?
If you spend a long time in a spacesuit then you have the risk of cosmic radiation increasing risk of lifetime cancer. And nobody has yet found a portable "forcefield" to keep them out. They are highly energetic and can only really be kept out by thick layers of water and other materials - and I mean there meters thick layers, not practical for a spacesuit. For the lower energy but more deadly solar storms, which will be more of a problem as humans venture beyond LEO then some magnetic protection may be possible for a spaceship similarly to the way the Earth's magnetic field protects astronauts in the ISS, but nobody has perfected anything yet - and nowhere near being able to make a mobile unit for a spacesuit to protect against solar storms.
As telerobotics gets better, it's possible that spacesuits may become something of a thing of the past used only in emergency. Because if you can do everything via telerobotics, like controlling an avatar in a game - why send humans outside in person? Doesn't endanger anyone, and the robotic hands can eventually be as mobile as a real hand with some recent ideas for ways of making them - and none of the problems of pressurized gloves - and with haptic feedback you'd feel things more sensitively than you can through a pressurized glove. And can be equipped with digitally enhanced vision so you actually see and sense your surroundings better than you would in a spacesuit. And everything you see automatically streamed in real time so everyone can see what you see just as you see it if they want to or need to.
If that happens then typical settlements on the Moon say would be underground, maybe in a lunar cavern, with the humans controlling robotic avatars on the surface, indeed the Moon is close enough so that using similar methods to those used by gamers to interact with each other real time in online games despite communications delays, we may well do a lot of it by telerobotic operation from Earth itself.
We could also do telerobotic exploration from settlements in orbit around the body - or in the L1 or L2 positions near the Moon, as those also could be protected with meters thick layers of shielding if necessary.
So- I expect spacesuits to improve. But also likely to be used less in future with spacewalks for routine repairs or things like constructing or repairing habitats, or indeed for space exploration and discovery too, as we'd use telerobots instead as they become easier to use. Plus also with a level of autonomy too so you could have many robotic avatars and I'd see a not too distant human outpost in the solar system as a bit like civilization type games, a few humans, lots of avatars and typically you leave one of them doing some routine task while you then telejump to another one, so the humans only do the most challenging and interesting things that need to be done. And occasionally you might get into a spacesuit for something you can't do any other way - or for recreation, or in an emergency.
About the Author
Robert Walker
Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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