The Evolution Of The Space Suit — And Where It’s Headed
Try leaving Earth and going directly into space, in a rocket. No space suit, just the clothes you’d regularly wear each day. If you try and leave this rocket, you’re going to be faced with a difficult problem: how do you survive the vacuum we know as space. Space starts off by throwing a series of different properties at us, including lack of oxygen, lack of gravity, and lack of ability to move.
That’s why before astronauts even considered going into space, you first have to be able to survive the conditions of the outside. The outside conditions vary depending on if you’re in open space or on the surface of a planet — like in the Mars mission which may happen in the future, people can’t survive on the planet in regular street clothes.
Think of our need for space suits being like someone who lives on the equator. It’s hot there, so they likely have light clothing, cotton fabrics, thin layers so they’re able to adapt well to the environment and survive. If they take a jet plane over to Antarctica, they won’t be able to survive due to the drastic change in conditions. The same with someone flying from Antarctica to the equator: if their clothing doesn’t change, they’ll be ill-suited for the environment.
