Official News - page 8

REAL LIFE NEWS: NEW SPACESUIT FABRIC SEALS LEAKS

A new fabric has been developed for spacesuits that can generate electricity from sunlight, kill germs, protect its wearer from radiation - and can detect and fix holes caused by micrometeoroids.

A team from spacesuit maker ILC Dover in Delaware has come up with a multilayered material with flexible solar cells sewn into the outer layer to provide the suit with power, and an inner layer of polymer gel encased in thin plastic which protects the suit from damage. If a hole less than 2mm across is created, the gel oozes out to fix it. To detect larger holes, the suit is criss-crossed with thin electrical wires attached to microprocessors, which detect any break in the circuit caused by damage and alert the wearer.

Then there are silver-coated layers of polyester which shed silver ions to kill bacteria, and layers of polythene which absorb radiation to protect astronauts against cosmic rays.

Team leader David Cadogan described this new material at a space conference a few weeks ago. He said that NASA wants to develop new spacesuits for its return to the moon, and this fabric has been developed as part of a smart materials programme to that end. The fabric could also be used to build an inflatable moon base or space station.

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