ignatz (12/02/82)
*sigh*. I, too, now contribute to the drivel. I just talked to a fellow named Dave Alter at Johnson Space Center in Houston, to whom I was shuttled when they found out I wanted an informed statement on this. When queried on "mechanical restraint suits" (note the quotes), his response was, "They did look at such things. They were ruled out for the type of things we are doing. Partly was the technical difficulty of actually covering all the various openings we (humans) have; partly was finding some material which could protect the skin sufficiently via mechanical restraint, have the partial permeability to allow perspiration and heat dissipation without being permeable enough to allow decompression, and finally to provide proper thermal control when you don't have convection cooling/heating. I have to go to a meeting, it's been fascinating..." (this at 4:30 his local time...right.) Let's let it go now. Dave Ihnat ihuxx!ignatz