The clunky and iconic space suit designs that NASA have been using for the last few decades could seen be a thing of the past. A recent TED Women talk provided an insight into the future of spaceware with several new suit designs that are sleek, modern and actually look pretty comfortable. These new designs have more in common with the space suits in Mass Effect than they do with the ones NASA currently use.

The first one, which you can see in the image above is designed for general usage, as well as being suitable for human trips to Mars. Of course, these suits are only prototypes at the moment, but while they may look a little informal, they will still be created to meet the requirements and rigours of space travel.

While the other two suits are not designed for use in a Mars environment, they’re still very useful. Both are designed for wear on the inside of your spacecraft, casual wear if you will. One is an exercise suit that will help maintain your muscles, handy given that Astronauts lose muscle strength in space.

The final suit is more of a solution to a current problem, it is designed to be worn inside one of the bigger outside bulky suits. It should protect astronauts shoulders from being damaged, something that has been a real problem after long missions. The new suit will offer support to these vulnerable areas.

The suits designer Deva Newman said that her dream is to invent the world’s coolest space suits for Mars, and personally I think she has done exactly that.

Thank you Gigaom for providing us with this information.

Images courtesy of TED Women.