r/worldbuilding May All Be Well 23h ago

Spacefaring Garments Visual

Post image
519 Upvotes

35

u/Teeteegone May All Be Well 23h ago

Spacecraft crews, known locally as Braves, embark on their interstellar journeys clad in distinctive protective equipment. Every member of a Brave wears their own spacefaring garment, carefully woven by the City’s finest craftspeople before their first voyage. A permanent fixture of spacecraft life, requiring as much attention as any mechanical component of a vessel. While some consider suit maintenance to be a chore, many younger spacefarers find it a therapeutic exercise that calms the anxieties of an interstellar journey.

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This is part of my worldbuilding project May All Be Well, which you can read more about in this primer document. If you like my artwork, do check out my Twitter and Artstation! Have a lovely day!

23

u/dumbass_spaceman 23h ago

Cool.

Often, when dealing with the attire of astronauts, sci-fi goes with pure utilitarian spacesuits or just normal clothes with maybe a gizmo or two.

We need more stylized space suits. Good work op.

10

u/HeinousTugboat 17h ago

I like the Crew Marker, but I feel like it fails a little bit at actually clearly identifying that person's role. It seems like it should be repeated in a few different places?

4

u/Teeteegone May All Be Well 13h ago

Yeah their similarities occurred to me once I'd put it all together, definitely room for extra pattern breakup to differentiate them some more!

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u/Bscha_wb89 [Bronze Age, 1630s, Semi-hard sci-fi, goth] 22h ago

Beautiful garments

4

u/Pretend-Row4794 18h ago

This is sod so cool Idk about the language:culture but while the job markers look cool I feel like form a distance or a glance they’re hard to tell apart? Unless each shape is a word/symbol etc.

I love love love the art and idea!!!

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u/BoiledSulpher 19h ago

Hell yeah man, I love this

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u/crawlerette 18h ago

Ohhhhhhh I love the color palette and especially the role markers!

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u/banter07_2 17h ago

May all be well is one of my favourite things on this sub as of recent

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u/Mephil_ 11h ago

Crew markers look incredibly cool but I don't think they are very practical. They all look basically the same, with very small details to differentiate them from each other. I doubt even a native would be able to identify them clearly at a distance, even less so when its covered up by a bunch of gear.

It would probably need something additional, like a difference in color to be able to tell at a glance which rank you are.

1

u/QuesterrSA 12h ago

This is very Lancer.

1

u/superzacco 3h ago

huge fan of the bagginess and blockyness of it

0

u/guitarenthusiast1s 20h ago

doesn't look rigid enough to be suitable in a pressure-differential environment.

what are the shoulder and knee joint mechanisms? it doesn't look like there are any.

it looks like it would turn into a balloon in a vacuum

8

u/Street-Conclusion-99 20h ago

Typically, the restrain layer is internal, that’s why it is rare to see in art. Most spacesuits are multi layer anyways, but from a practical standpoint, it keeps you from scuffing or popping the pressurized layer

My main concern would be the lack of overall sheilding, but that can be handwaved away with sci-fi unobtanium (in current times it is several layers of aluminized Mylar, protects from radiation and a little bit from micrometeors)

1

u/guitarenthusiast1s 20h ago

I would expect all spacesuits to be multi-layered, but rigid joints are bulky, and it doesn't look like there's any bulk in these around the joints.

unless these are supposed to use some technology that doesn't require rigid joints?

and what kind of shielding are you talking about? ionizing radiation?

5

u/Street-Conclusion-99 18h ago

Spacesuits don’t usually have rigid joints, likely for weight reasons. It’s typically a rubber garment strapped together with something called the restraint layer (prevents it from ballooning outwards) this makes it difficult to move in, like inflating a surgical glove before doing surgery, but it’s industry standard for now

In the future we might see a switch to mechanical counter pressure garments, which exert the needed pressure without using an atmosphere (like a tight compression garment), but the tech isn’t quite there yet

Yea the shielding is for ionizing radiation, but also thermal radiation (insulation), but the thin layers stacked on top of each other function as a rudimentary whipple shield to halt micrometeors

0

u/guitarenthusiast1s 17h ago

I'm pretty sure the new suits (that were being developed by collins I think?) have rigid joints.

where do you get your info from? have you worked with spacesuits?

also, I don't expect suits to provide any protection from ionizing radiation, I don't think it's possible to meet both mobility and shielding requirements; the physics don't allow it

5

u/HeinousTugboat 17h ago

These ones?

They do, in fact, provide some protection against radiation, too.

0

u/guitarenthusiast1s 17h ago

yep, those ones; you can see that the torso, hips, and shoulders are rigid. it looks like the elbows are rigid too.

and tissue paper also provides some protection against radiation, but not enough.

ps - I'd like to put a reminder here that rediquette dictates that comments should only be downvoted if they do not contribute to the discussion

4

u/HeinousTugboat 17h ago

It will also protect against radiation levels that are 150 times greater than one receives while on Earth.

Pretty solid tissue paper.

For reference, the ISS sees about 30x the radiation of the surface according to the ESA.

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u/guitarenthusiast1s 17h ago

that's not enough for long term cosmic ray exposure or any significant solar event

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u/HeinousTugboat 17h ago

It.. was enough for NASA to accept the proposal? I don't really understand your point.

also, I don't expect suits to provide any protection from ionizing radiation, I don't think it's possible to meet both mobility and shielding requirements; the physics don't allow it

The same suits you referenced do, in fact, provide a decent amount of protection from ionizing radiation. Is it "enough"? Enough for what? A couple hours in open space? A week sleeping in the suit in orbit? Clearly the ones you referenced provide enough protection for Moonwalks.

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u/HeinousTugboat 17h ago

ps - I'd like to put a reminder here that rediquette dictates that comments should only be downvoted if they do not contribute to the discussion

It also dictates explaining your edits. :-)

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u/guitarenthusiast1s 17h ago

I did: ps means "post script", ie. an edit

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u/Street-Conclusion-99 14h ago

Yeah, the more modern ones have more in the way of joints, but all current operational emus have none You don’t ever need to block ALL radiation, but even then, a few layers of Mylar do a decent job at reducing it

I haven’t worked directly with spacesuits (yet), but have more of a hobby with them, but have had a chance to view several up close and speak with those who work on them

That being said, I don’t specialize in the older style of pressure bladders or even rigid jointing, I’m mainly interested in mechanical counterpressure as an option

Sorry for the rambling, I just think spacesuits are neat:)

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u/guitarenthusiast1s 14h ago

have you read kim stanley robinson's mars series? I think they use mechanical counter-pressure suits in those.

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u/Street-Conclusion-99 14h ago

I haven’t, most of my knowledge actually comes from some VERY old nasa papers on the subject, and the few modern projects attempting it. Still plenty of issues left to solve, but certainly the move for most future suits.  Currently, the single hardest issue is donning/doffing the damn thing, since by necessity it MUST be tight, and must never fail in a way that prevents it from being tight. Once I stop procrastinating I’ll talk to the memory metal guy at NASA (I’m sure there’s multiple but I’ve only met one), to see if there’s anything that fits the profile I need

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u/guitarenthusiast1s 14h ago

yeah, I would recommend the series, it talks about all of that if I recall correctly