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Comment by rosmax_1337 | Hacker News Reader

I think the spacesuit looks kinda bad.

Bad as in good?

I think they look pretty cool. I wouldn't want to survive alone on Mars with one, but they look like they've had some brand design input.

Bad as in bad.

A lot of space technology is purely functional, but these clearly have poor design taste put into them. The old suits that the Apollo era used were probably almost only functional, yet even they look better.

Not sure how it is possible to consider fashion vs getting to do a space walk.

I think they did consider fashion for these suits, they just did so poorly.

I think it's hard to make the suits look sleek and cool if only because you need to fit many layers of insulation and rotator joints, tubing, etc. Makes it very difficult to have something tailored and fitted, which seems to be what SpaceX is trying to do. There could be a mobility advantage in having a suit that is closer to your body though, as in less risk of having your suit tangled or damaged by objects around you.

I'm not really making a judgement about their competence, the results just didn't turn out well. I think these things are indeed very difficult. To hazard a guess about the competency behind this, they had some people filling double roles doing the fashion of the suit. That they essentially asked an engineer with a side gig as a designer to make it.

They look poor compared to what? They're more modern looking than the ISS suits currently in use.

I think the suits used by the ISS look better.

It seems very rigid, but it's also much less bulky than the current ISS EVA suit batch. The requirements are very different though - ISS suits are modular and designed to stay in space for as long as possible before needing to get back down for a refurbish.

Rigid means higher air pressure which means less time in the airlock meaning longer missions.

But it also means little freedom to move. There are a lot of tasks they can’t perform in those suits.

Also thermal management seemed to be an issue, as they were restricted to operate in the shadow of the spacecraft.

Good for a v0.1 beta.

Robosapien vibes…

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