Skin-Suit
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"Skin-Suit" Space-Rated Uniform
Skin Suits are officially known as the Armoured Chameleon Suit. A Swarm era light space suit and personal armor system, issued to spaceborne crew and all Confederacy combat troops.
Background
In the pre-Swarm era, Humans were working on the design of a lightweight, high mobility, space suit concept. The first version was the Space Activity Suit (SAS) designed by Paul Webb which was built for NASA. Instead of being inflated, as was the conventional spacesuit, it used skintight elastic garments to compress the body. The project began in the 1960s but was discontinued in the early 1970s
The human body can briefly survive the hard vacuum of space unprotected. Human flesh expands to about twice its size in such conditions, giving the visual effect of a body builder rather than an overfilled balloon. Consciousness is retained for up to 15 seconds as the effects of oxygen starvation set in. No snap freeze effect occurs as all heat must be lost through either radiation of the heat, or evaporation of liquids, and the blood does not boil because it remains pressurized within the body. The greatest danger is in attempting to hold one's breath before exposure, as the subsequent explosive decompression can damage the lungs in much the same way as holding ones breath while surfacing from deep water dives. These effects have been confirmed through various accidents (including in very high altitude conditions, outer space and training vacuum chambers). Human skin does not need to be protected from vacuum and is gas-tight by itself. Instead it only needs to be mechanically compressed to retain its normal shape and thermally protected to prevent frostbite. This can be accomplished with a tight-fitting elastic body suit and a helmet to contain breathing gases and protect the ears and eyes.
First tests of the suit design were successful. The practicality of a mechanical counter pressure spacesuit was demonstrated conclusively. The energy needed to move about was considerably less than conventional designs, which was a major improvement for long-duration spacewalks. Tests of punctures showed that up to a square millimeter of skin could be directly exposed to vacuum for extended periods with no permanent effect. However, a number of problems also turned up, primarily related to the problem of keeping the suit in strong mechanical contact at every point on the body. Concavities or small folds in the fabric could lead to fluid pooling in the gaps; the crotch area proved extremely difficult to tailor successfully. To correct this, small pads of polyurethane foam were inserted into concavities and were successful in most problem areas. The suits had to be tailored to each individual, although the same was true of the earlier Apollo suits. The largest difficulty was donning and removing the suit. In order to effectively provide the minimum pressure necessary for human physiology, the suit had to be extremely tight-fitting, making donning and doffing a highly strenuous task.
The next generation suit was built at MIT shortly before the Swarm era. The Bio-Suit looked like a tight fitting set of coveralls. Not quite tight enough for a 'cat-suit' label, it was still form fitting and suitable to be used as a uniform on any Sci-Fi show of the day. Developed by a team under Professor Dava Newman, it was similar to the SAS while incorporation several advances in engineering, measurement and materials to make what was actually a much simplified design.
Using the science of bio-mechanics, her team looked for locations on the body where stretching motions did NOT take place. The primary structure of the BioSuit was built by placing elastic cords along lines of non-elongation. As the cords will not be stretched along these lines - at least in normal movements - whatever pressure they provide will be constant even as the wearer moves. In this way, they can very accurately control the mechanical counter-pressure the suit applies. The rest of the suit was then built up from spandex lying between the primary pressure cords. The Bio-Suit team then constructed a number of lower leg prototypes using different materials, including nylon-spandex, elastic, kevlar and urethane-painted foam. The result was a one-layer version of the SAS; it was lighter than the original and considerably more flexible, allowing much more natural motion and decreasing the energy cost of motion.
Swarm Era
When the Darjee arrived, the AIs had terabytes of data on space suits, materials and other pertinent data. A quick and dirty upgrade of the Bio Suit used carbon nanofibers for a tighter weave with some protection ability. Later upgrades include designs with gloves of the same materials, special crotch and groin area fittings with waste product storage areas, allowing for longer times in the suit, and Chameleon skin camouflage nanosystems.
The final version issued to all personnel serving in space had minimal air replenishment, waste product hookups, and detachable helmet, gloves, and boots as well as emergency deployment 'baggies' for the head, hands, and feet. It could be worn under a regular uniform where it provided some protection from light impacts. By regulation all shipboard skinsuits are white, but there are several accepted color variants:
- The vessel's Commanding Officer usually wears a skinsuit with a gold ring at each extremity (neck, wrists, ankles) to allow rapid visual identification. On troop transports, the embarked formation's senior Marine (or Militia member, etc) usually has similar identifying rings in black.
- Medical personnel have red rings, as well as a large red cross on both front and back of their chest.
- The CMC version issued to tactical Marines included the "Chameleon" skin camo system, but that system was turned off by formal policy for shipboard use.
Medical features
Earth medical personnel, early in the relationship with the Darjee, were extremely concerned that the Darjee, without combat experience, believed that a small number of medtubes was adequate for a warship. To help deal with mass casualty situations, the Earth doctors extended the concept of loose tourniquets built into battle dress. Medical bands at the top of the arms and shoulders, contained a tourniquet, which could be tightened remotely, a microtransporter that had access to intravenous fluid and drug storage in the ship, and a variety of ways to move fluids into the body. The bands either could be a nondescript color, or, especially popular among concubines, could look like frilly garters.
Part of the suit medical suite was a set of sensors which could be remotely interrogated. These went beyond the basic vital signs, and monitored blood gases and pH, as well as lactic acid levels as an indicator of fatigue, and glucose as a surrogate for stored energy. The crotch fittings also measured fluid output.
Concubine Coveralls
"Crew-Conks", concubines that accompany their patrons on warships and serve as part of the crew, serve the Confederacy in ways far more important than just on their backs and for most legal purposes are treated as "junior volunteers". Concubines with this status are issued white "coveralls" which are basically a simpler version of the skinsuit. They are one-piece garments with a single zipper that goes from the neck in front, down to the crotch, between the legs, and back up again to the small of the back. Besides making the suit relatively easy to don and doff, the zipper makes both bathroom and bedroom tasks simple without removing the entire suit.
The standard suit comes with a pouch (attached at small of back) that contains gloves, booties, and a clear hood. All of these attach within seconds and turn the coveralls into a minimal-use spacesuit that can be used for emergencies.
The "Williams mod" adds two zippers, one on each side from armpit to hips. It is left as an exercise to the reader what possible use these zippers might have.
One common exception to the "all white" rule is gold for the CO's lead concubine (the ship's "head bitch").
References
From "Patrol Commander", about early uniform decisions: "... we would keep our basic white ship-suit as working gear. The white was specified to make it easy to locate a casualty in the aftermath of combat damage or other disaster, as well as ease of inspection. Damage to the suit would be much more difficult to notice if it was a different color, or even worse a different color for each man." and "The suit worn by a vessel's commander had a gold stripe around each wrist, ankle, and neck so that he could be identified immediately whether you could see his whole body or not."
See Also
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