The spacesuits of today are cumbersome and uncomfortable. Worst of all, they’re not stylish. As a science fiction writer/illustrator, I want my characters to look good when they’re blasting through the vacuum of space, fighting bad guys and ridding the galaxy of evil. Fortunately, NASA researchers have provided me with a realistic (or at least plausible) excuse for dressing my characters the way I want.
It’s something I call the super sexy spacesuit, but the people who are actually developing the technology call it a mechanical counterpressure (M.C.P.) suit. Spacesuits today are basically body-shaped spaceships, and the whole interior needs to be pumped full of air to replicate atmospheric pressure. The big selling point for M.C.P. suits is that you wear them like regular clothing.
Almost. They’re a lot tighter than regular clothing. Not the way Spandex is tight. No, they’re way tighter than that. The fibers in the cloth are supposed to constrict on command, squeezing your body—squeezing so hard they end up exerting one atmosphere’s worth of pressure on your skin.
When you’re in space, you won’t notice that pressure. You’ve lived your whole life under one atmosphere’s worth of pressure, so you’re used to that. The suit should feel like a second skin, providing you all the comfort and flexibility of being naked (and perhaps the body image anxiety as well).
You’ll also be safer, at least in one sense, because minor damage to the suit wouldn’t cause catastrophic depressurization, the way it can with a contemporary spacesuit. However, there are still a few parts of the body where mechanical counterpressure won’t work so well. Fingers and toes, and all the small bones of the hands and feet, are really, really not meant to be compressed in this way. The same is true for your face and head, and mechanical counterpressure in the groin area could also be problematic.
But still, in the future some sort of M.C.P. spacesuit might be a plausible option, not just so we can survive in the vacuum of space but so we can look good doing it.
Or you could forego spacesuits all together and do this instead:
Planet Pailly 
I have mixed feelings about this. Going to the beach is hard enough, now space too! Sigh. The things we do for survival.
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Yeah, wearing one of these things would make me feel very self-conscious. I didn’t mention this in the post, but in my story world the M.C.P. suit serves only as an under-layer, and there’s a jumpsuit that goes to over it. Ostensibly that’s for radiation protection, but really it’s so that the spacesuit can look formfitting without looking too formfitting.
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Yes! I’m on team jumpsuit. Clever thinking.
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Thanks! I may have more to say about this in an upcoming story time post. We’ll see where the writing leads me.
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I was going to try to say something sensible, but the video song gives me the giggles
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Yeah, it’s a fun song.
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I know Star Trek actors wear jumpsuits and some say Jeri Ryan fainted because of the pressure… now i’m sure theres no M.C.P. given her uniform specs. However her camera pics are sexy erm I mean tight, yeah thats the word,I meant to say. Shes tightly wrapped up, so you see – Seven of Nine aka Jeri Ryan knows all about tight space suits which explains a lot I believe.
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I heard about the Jeri Ryan fainting story too. It wouldn’t surprise me if it were true. Actually, I felt like they went a little too far playing up the sex appeal with Seven of Nine. The character was supposed to be all about Borg efficiency, but her outfit (especially those high heels) did not look efficient to me.
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I have the disturbing feeling that the suits will only be as sexy as the person wearing them. And frankly, I could use a boost, so… maybe I’ll stick with something in a wearable spaceship?
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Pretty sure those will still be available. NASA’s been working on improving the wearable spaceship design too. They’ve come up with this hatchback thing: https://www.space.com/25708-how-nasa-z2-spacesuit-works-infographic.html
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