Z-1 Suit
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Basic Information

The Z-1 Suit is a prototype space suit designed by NASA for upcoming space missions. It's most striking feature, (apart from making the astronaut look like Buzz Lightyear) is that it is not donned like a suit of clothing or armor, the way space suits have traditionally, but rather entered through a hatch in the back. The suit is kept on the outside of the spaceship/living quarters/vehicle. When and astronaut wishes to go outside, he climbs through the hatch into the suit, closes it behind him and detatches the suit.

The suit was listed as one of TIME Magazine's Best Inventions of the Year for 2012.

Sources

Bibliography
2. 'Cause Every Nerd's Crazy 'Bout a Sharp Dressed Astronaut — several good photos and diagrams illustrating how the suit functions
4. NASA's Z-1 Space Suit — from TIME Magazines Best Inventions of the Year 2012

Game and Story Use

  • A space campaign set Twenty Minutes Into the Future might employ this type of space suit.
  • This would appear to place the suit at unecessary risk from space dust, introduce an unecessary complication and point of failure into the suit and place unecessary weak points in the ship's hull. Looks like a rather stupid idea to me.
    • Also, really hard to do any maintenance or testing on the suit - you can't do a full pressure test until you've boarded the suit and disconnected it from the lock. At which point it may be rather too late.
    • Likewise, in the event of an emergency, rescue may be an issue.
  • This principle might be used for some kind of extended mission suit - sort of like a one man space-ship - but even then it would seem more sensible to keep it in a hangar.
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