[quote=“Tjafaas, post:36, topic:179”]After all, having a breach in the glass cockpit is not necessarly lethal in earth’s atmosphere. Hell, you can even escape your (military) aircraft with an ejection seat, with only the minor problem of having a warm protection suit and possibly a oxygen breather for high altitude.
But in space? You better hope not to have any breach EVER, or wear your space protection suit at all time during fights, which includes some kind of helmet. Not the best way to have a good vision.[/quote]
This combined with the fact that the myth of instantly dying in a vacuum is not correct gave me an idea.
Given that there is a device that infuses ones blood with oxygen (which I know exist in most Hospitals) and vector thrusters but nothing else like a suit, is it possible to extend the mere seconds long uncontrollable death scene into a several minute long spacewalk and maybe “barebones / fringe” method of transferring crew?
I know that a human exposed to vacuum essentially would die from oxygen deprivation. The skin can hold the body together more or less. Exposed fluids like in the mouth and eyes will boil away though … I don’t know how dangerous that is. I also know that the radiation from the nearest Star will also be a problem but I guess that would only create a minimal distance this Spacewalk could happen from a Star. The Spacewalk probably would need to be pretty short near Earth orbit for that reason.
Maybe possible but why?
If you’re in a position where a breach is a distinct possibility, surely you’d wear a proper suit?
I think we can imagine a future suit that is comfortable and unrestrictive and a helmet that doesn’t limit visibility.
I’m aware that human body will not explode instantly during a vacuum, nor will it freeze instantly the moment you get in touch with space environnement. However, things will quickly get bad enough and you will die in less than a minute. I don’t think that anyone could continue fighting in this situation, compared to an aircraft where a breach is annoying, but not critical either (let’s exclude the G acceleration here).
Loosing essential organs like eyes is not an option during a fight, as it will leave unoperationnal during a fight, and therefore dead. So basically, wear a suit at all time, or none at all.
That’s what I’m sceptical about … but hey, we’re only at the beginning of space survival, we surely can get some clever things to work out this problem ^^
If you are interested in how Elite Dangerous solved this problem, here is a link to a newsletter that addresses this. Everything from oxygen supply to limb detachment and zero-g movement is covered.
Or you could replace the idea of a transparent visor with a few strategically placed cameras and a built in oculus rift - or contact lenses with video capability and bluetooth (people have been prototyping video contacts since before NASA started prototyping alcubierre drives so if Infinity’s got FTL travel…).
I’d say go with Disney’s the Guardians of the Galaxy approach. Make a materializing helmet/mask and claim that the cloths use energy fields to protect everything else.
I feel like you guys over estimate the complexity of simple technology like helmets. I don’t see how wearing a space suit could be disadvantageous in any way. I think that every ships’ cockpit should be de-pressurized during combat anyway.
I wanted to post this before but the visibility of that mask doesn’t seem that great.
Wearing a space suit has some minor disantvantages.
The main reason I created this thread was because I believe that having the technology concealed as much as possible would create an image of humans mastering space in such a way that they could step outside as if it was for a walk in the woods. The danger it once posed now gone, men can float between the stars.
Other advantages of a good old spacesuit (probably a skinsuit like in ED):
No need to model a (million of different) face(s). Helmets are easier to model than faces.
It looks cool.
Protects from doodads blowing up in the cockpit Star-Trek style.
Protects from burning coolant fluid splashing the cockpit.
Protects from radioactive isotopes vaporized in the cockpit.
Protects from high-energy particles bathing the cockpit (you should really fix that generator).
Protects from the life support shutting down (by choking on the vaporized isotopes).
Protects from the tiny part of the high-intensity energy beam that put a hole in the generator and made it to the cockpit.
Protects from the g-forces when the inertia dampener has a hiccup (due to variation of power levels from the generator).
Protects from the non-euclidean effects bathing the cockpit (when fleeing at full warp with a hole in the generator).
Protects from the non-euclidean effects bathing the pilot when the “ripcord” emergency teleport take her away from the exploding ship.
Protects from the energy bath of the exploding generator while the pilot is ripcorded away.
Protects the pilot’s embarrassed face when asking for a new ship at the ripcord station because the previous kind of blew up.
I don’t see how wearing a space suit could be disadvantageous in any way. I think that every ships’ cockpit should be de-pressurized during combat anyway.