In Brief

Building the Spacesuit of the Future: Live Webcast Tonight

News
By Tariq Malik
published

Slimming Down Future Spacesuits
Dava Newman dons the Biosuit spacesuit design on Henry Moore's sculpture "Reclining Figure" on the MIT campus. (Image credit: Donna Coveney/MIT.)

For astronauts flying in space, spacesuits are a must-have accessory. But spacesuit technology has come a long way since the dawn of human spaceflight. Tonight, MIT professor Dava Newman will discuss her BioSuit spacesuit design and you can watch it live online.

Newman will discuss her BioSuit spacesuit concept at 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 GMT) during a live webcast hosted by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Mass.

You can watch the BioSuit webcast live on Space.com, as well as directly from the CfA here: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/publicevents.

"The BioSuit applies pressure to the entire body through a tight-fitting material rather than using a stiff, gas-filled envelope that restricts an astronaut's movement, like current spacesuits," CfA officials wrote in webcast description. "Combining fashion and functionality, the BioSuit provides astronauts new flexibility and range of motion. This is the end of the bulky moon look!" [Evolution of the Spacesuit in Photos]

Newman is the director of MIT's Technology and Policy Program, and serves as a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems.

Newman's Biosuit discussion tonight is part of the monthly Observatory Nights program at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The lecture series was founded in 1930 by then CfA-director Harlow Shapley to share the latest discoveries by astronomers with the public, according to an event description.

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Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.