Made to fit (Image: Space Systems Laboratory/Department of Aerospace Engineering/University of Maryland)

FORGET the complex choreography involved in putting on a spacesuit: astronauts will one day be able to get suited and booted in seconds by stepping through the neck of an overlarge, part-robotic spacesuit.

So say engineers David Akin and Shane Jacobs at the University of Maryland in College Park.

Once you’re inside the baggy suit, its upper torso contracts using pneumatic artificial muscles to ensure a perfect fit.

Its morphing design means it should be less unwieldy than today’s suits and allow astronauts to be more efficient, both …