art cradling science... Dava Newman in her space suit Credit: Donna Coveney

Those MIT folks are such smarty-pantses! MIT professor of Aeronautics and Engineering, Dava Newman, has teamed up with design firm Trotti and Associates to build a better space suit. Dubbed the BioSuit, Newman’s creation is a considerable design improvement (both in terms of functionality and aesthetics) from the Neil Armstrong model. The goal: a lighter, skin-tight, more flexible space suit. Unintended consequence: bringing sexy back to space travel.

But don’t get your hopes up, space cowboy, the suit is still techinically a prototype and won’t be ready for space travel for at least another 10 years.

Listen to the Studio360 segment on the BioSuit or, if you’re feeling a little frisky, watch the video of Newman giving an hour-long lecture to her peeps at MIT after the jump. Damn does she know how to make a powerpoint presentation. Jealous!

This article appears in December 12 • 2008.

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