NARRATION

Looks like fun, doesn't it. But it's a good thing in space, no one can hear you scream. Because, did you know, space suits can do this.

Dr Jeffrey Hoffman

We've had numerous astronauts who, after extensive work inside space gloves, their fingernails have actually turned black and fallen off.

Dr Jonica Newby

It's what astronauts don't tell you. space suits are unwieldy, exhausting, and can make your fingernails fall out. Really, how will we ever be proper space explorers with outfits like these. We need a better space suit. And down on Earth, at Boston's legendary MIT, is a young man who thinks he's got the right stuff to build one... Australian engineer, James Waldie.

Dr James Waldie

Lets go to lunar gravity.

Dr Jonica Newby

Who's currently hanging on the low G simulation machine.

Dr Jonica Newby

So James, I've always wanted to know, what would really happen if you didn't have a space suit, I mean did the movies get it right?

Dr James Waldie

No, the movies didn't get it right. What happens simply is that the oxygen is sucked out of your blood at the lung interface and it takes about 10 to 15 seconds for that blood to reach up to your brain. And the last thing you would experience before going unconscious is your saliva boiling off your tongue.

Dr Jonica Newby

How come?

Dr James Waldie

Well the saliva doesn't exist in the liquid state at that pressure level. So it ends up boiling off to a gas.

Dr Jonica Newby

What a lovely last thought, as you die in space. What's my saliva doing! Our bodies evolved under pressure. In the vacuum of space, all the pressure inside us wants to flow out. To solve this problem, many years ago NASA designed a suit that would simply carry Earth's atmosphere around with us. The trouble is - well, let's show you. As you can see, NASA has very kindly lent us one of these real space suit gloves so I can actually experience what it feels like to wear one of these in space.

Dr James Waldie

So we're evacuating 30% of an atmosphere out of this chamber here.

Dr Jonica Newby

OK, all fine so far. Oh, gosh, its starting to stiffen up... Oh, oh, ahh, that's getting - that's a lot of pressure... Gosh - I can barely move my fingers now. Which seems to amuse James Waldie's boss, former astronaut, Jeffrey Hoffman.

Dr Jeffrey Hoffman

Getting tired already?

Jonica Newby

I am getting tired already. I don't know how you managed this. It's only been 10 minutes.

NARRATION

And well might he laugh. Jeffrey has spent a total of 24 hours on spacewalks - most famously repairing the Hubble telescope. And while he escaped space suit wounds, many don't.

Dr Jeffrey Hoffman

We've had significant injuries to hands, to shoulders. The fit of your glove is critical. These gloves when they're pressurised are very hard - imagine if the crotch between your fingers, if that crotch is too long and, and actually pushes down between your fingers,it's like having a knife cutting into your hand. The way you lose your fingernails is if it's too tight, it can actually cut off the circulation in the end of your fingertip.

NARRATION

Hardly the science fiction dream. What we really need is something out of Star Trek - something comfortable, movable, something more like this

Dr Jonica Newby

Is this the look?

Dr James Waldie

It is, yes. This is the Biosuit. The theory is that instead of external pressure being supplied by a balloon of air, it's supplied by elastic. This is only a mockup, because the real suit would be way too tight to wear on Earth.

Dr James Waldie

So let me give you an idea of how strong this suit really has to compress you. So when you get your blood pressure taken by the doctor, they will pump it right up... Pump it up until the blood actually stops flowing... What we're going to do is pump it a little bit more, and this is currently about 30% of an atmosphere. So if this was actually applied uniformly, you would actually feel OK.

Dr Jonica Newby

You reckon? So how would you get a suit this tight on?

Dr James Waldie

That's the biggest problem we have in having NASA accept this as a practical alternative to the current gas pressurised suits. And we have looked at lots of different ways. For instance, we could perhaps weave electro-active polymers into the suit itself. And we could plug it into the wall and it would relax like a pair of pyjamas. And then as the air lock pressure decreases, your suit would contract and compensate for the lack of pressure.

Dr Jonica Newby

Unfortunately, that technology is at least a decade away. But meanwhile, many a future astronaut will worship at the shrine of James Waldie if he can just perfect the biosuit glove.

Dr James Waldie

What we're trying to do is incorporate skin suit gloves onto the current suits. And then we could talk about full arm and full leg skin suit components with a gas-pressurised torso. And then as we go on to Mars we can go to a full body elastic bio-suit system.

NARRATION

They may not have reached the dream of lycra clad space aerobics yet, but work on the Biosuit gave James another idea - even more exciting to NASA. You see, if we're actually going to go to Mars, we need a better suit for inside the spaceship too.

Dr Jeffrey Hoffman

There's all sorts of changes that occur to the human body when you're in the weightless environment of space. For a start, I grow five centimetres, about two inches. The whole body unloads. But without that constant pressure your bones lose calcium,

Dr James Waldie

For a Mars mission it would take about two and a half years. So you would come back with the hip bones of a 90 year old.

Dr Jonica Newby

One solution is a centrifuge, but it's a bit big for a spaceship. I'm very pleased I didn't throw up! So James had a brainwave - could he use the same principles as the biosuit to load pressure downward? Its comfortable, but it feels like I'm being pulled up into me, meanwhile my shoulders are being pulled down.

Dr James Waldie

That's right.

Dr Jonica Newby

The suit mimics the forces that act on our body through gravity - cleverly increasing stretch to apply a little force on the shoulders, more on the hips, most on the feet. This is a fully functioning prototype - and last year, James got to put it to the ultimate test - on the aircraft they affectionately call the vomit comet.

Dr James Waldie

So the vomit comet was a dream come true really. And the suit performed almost flawlessly.

NARRATION

Again, there's a way to go to prove this gravity loading suit can prevent bone loss. But if we're ever going to journey beyond our Earth, these are the kind of travel clothes we're going to need.

Dr Jeffrey Hoffman

You land on Mars for the first time, I don't think that there's very many little green men there who are going to help you when you get out of your spacecraft. So you better be in good condition when you get there.

Dr James Waldie

I'd love to be able to see the lights of a future lunar city twinkling. I'd love to think that some of my suits have helped us do that.