Regular spacesuits don't give astronauts much range of motion, what with the huge bulk that their gas-pressurized nature require. People who travel through the cosmos in scifi shows and movies always have much cooler suits, ones that allow for all sorts of moving around. Well, it looks like that concept is moving away from the fiction side of things and right to the plain old science side.A team at MIT has developed some totally awesome-looking, skintight spacesuits that remove all that bulk that astronauts need to deal with today. By getting rid of the gas-pressurized nature of the suits, they've created a sleek design that'll not only allow for a greater range of motion but also keep space travelers fit by providing resistance to motion. The suit uses mechanical counter-pressure rather than gas pressure, exerting force on the astronauts body to protect them from the vacuum of space. They hope to have it ready to roll in about 10 years, just in time for a manned mission to Mars. Totally awesome.
