From: mcai9ce2@hotmail.com   
      
   With Mars as the current flavour of the month, I have been looking via   
   google around sites concerned with the design of the Mars eva suit for   
   when we eventually go there.  All the sites were fairly interesting   
   but none seemed to answer a fairly simple question I have regarding   
   the Mars eva suit design that I have wondered about for sometime, and   
   that is how was the astronaut going to put it on and get into the   
   thing.   
      
   If the suit is going to be a polymer body hugging soft suit then it is   
   a reasonably simple exercise as the astronaut will put it on like a   
   heavy duty body stocking feet first, but all the paintings and NASA   
   illustrations I've seen show the Mars suit to be a full pressure suit.   
      
   The Apollo eva suits had IIRC a series of zippers, and Neil, Buzz and   
   the other guys entered the suit from the front, but they were one time   
   suits, and zippers are not very airtight.   The shuttle eva suit comes   
   in a two-part construction joined at the middle, but a suit for Mars   
   with that design would most probably be a nightmare to maintain.   
      
   The Russians have an eva suit where the entry is via the back with a   
   door like arrangement, but that to is problematical as it requires   
   someone else to swing the entry door closed, plus it requires the   
   person in the suit to double up to get into the thing as they have to   
   put their legs in at the same time as they duck and put their head and   
   arms in at the same time.   
      
   I would have a Oxygen Nitrogen mix at 12lb psi so no prebreathing is   
   required, as in an emergancy the suit would need to be put on asap.   
      
   My design on the back on an envelope and pondering idea while I'm   
   doing other things is to combine the shuttle and Russian design.  You   
   have a pants lower section like the shuttle eva suit, but have it high   
   up to chest bone hight like a fisher man/woman waders, the top section   
   is hinged back by 90 degrees, think of the upper part like on a small   
   plane whose canopy swings up and back.  The astronaut goes up a ladder   
   type frame and via a T [inverted] roped device lowers themselves into   
   the pants section putting their arms in once their feet are at the   
   bottom, once comfortable, they then just reach up and lower the top   
   section with it's attached helmet down, and an airtight 0 seal like on   
   a tupperware box is secured with a two clamps on the chest plate   
   section and one each on each shoulder part of the suit.   
      
   My design has the pants section and life support backpack as one   
   single unit, and all connections don't need to be concerned with the   
   door design of the Russian eva suit or needing to be attached together   
   like in the shuttle eva suit.   
      
   Comments, criticisms anyone?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)