r/worldbuilding May All Be Well 1d ago

Spacefaring Garments Visual

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u/HeinousTugboat 1d 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 1d ago

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

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u/HeinousTugboat 1d 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/guitarenthusiast1s 1d ago

yep, exactly.

they're fine for spacewalks on the order of hours (which is true for pretty much any space suit)

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u/HeinousTugboat 1d ago

Okay, and OP's suits are explicitly for short exposures and primarily ship-internal usage. So.. the amount of shielding the AxEMUs have would be fine.

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u/guitarenthusiast1s 1d ago

agreed, I'm not the one who had an issue with "the lack of overall sheilding".

that would be /u/Street-Conclusion-99

as expressed here

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u/HeinousTugboat 1d ago

As I quoted a moment ago, you asserted that physics don't allow it. Clearly they do. That's all. Street-Conclusion-99 even mentioned Unobtanium happily being able to bridge the gap, so physics wasn't even really part of the conversation to begin with.

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u/guitarenthusiast1s 23h ago

well, if physics ain't part of the equation then might as well have forcefields and not even need suits

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u/HeinousTugboat 23h ago

Sure thing! But OP wanted space suits.

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u/Street-Conclusion-99 21h ago

Not to ruin a good Reddit argument with fun world building, but another option would be generated magnetic fields. Saves a lot of bulk from being needed to fully shielded from radiation, the issue being energy expenditure. A long distance space vessel could use this, and the protection will extend a small radius outside the ship as well

It’s also worth noting that the suit seems primarily designed to be an IVA suit, with occasional outside work (for hopefully short periods). Even current technology IVA suits fit the profile of the suit in the image, but tend to be cumbersome when pressurized and not suitable for long term intense usage, as described