space.com has a nice feature today on the future of space suit design. “research is under way at the MIT on a bio-suit system to augment a person’s biological skin by providing mechanical counter-pressure. The ‘epidermis’ of such a second skin could be applied in spray-on fashion in the form of an organic, biodegradable layer.incorporated into that second skin would be electrically actuated artificial muscle fibers to enhance human strength and stamina…” etc etc. neat.

for a look at space suit history check out the ever fantastic encyclopedia astronautix’s page. if your impatient for the artemis project, transorbital, virgin galactic and the like to allow you the chance to suit up yourself, you can aways grab one of these and just mill around the house in the meantime.