On Feb 16, 9:17*am, Andreas Maurer wrote:
On Sun, 15 Feb 2009 17:21:59 -0800 (PST), bildan
wrote:

The literature from 4 years ago says Dr. Newman has personally tested
her suit at 95% of space vacuum.

Well... *a pressure suit is not something you want to test in an
enviroment where its failure means inevitable death...

Bye
Andreas

All pressure suits undergo extensive testing without a human inside
but sooner or later, someone has to put it on and test it in a
vacuum. I'm sure MIT is not careless. The Bio-Suit project is well
funded and peer reviewed.

Explosive decompression to hard vacuum is something that has been
deliberately tested on large primates and by accident on a few
humans. The subject will survive a minute or so and, if pressure and
oxygen are restored within that time, will fully recover. It IS an
injury accident, and something to avoid at all costs, but not
necessarily fatal or even disabling.

Citations:
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/as...rs/970603.html

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question...re/q0291.shtml

It's true the Bio-Suit hasn't been tested in flight but neither has a
pressurized glider cockpit at altitudes above that which has been
achieved without pressurization. It's not clear to me which will be
the better solution for flights above FL 500.