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NASA's Next-Gen Spacesuit Could Have an In-Helmet Display

• http://www.popsci.com/
 

Though NASA holds the keys to some of the most sophisticated technologies ever to make it into low Earth orbit, the spacesuits that astronauts wear up there are still in many ways similar to those worn during the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s. Fortunately for future astronauts, they may get a next-gen visual upgrade via a piece of technology that is coming down from the mountaintop at this year’s Desert Research and Technology Studies (RATS).

Vancouver-based Recon Instruments, maker of GPS-enabled ski goggles with in-goggle displays tucked in the peripheral, is sending its technology to NASA for potential inclusion in the next generation of spacesuit helmets in which mission critical information and checklists could appear right before astronauts eyes. NASA’s spacesuit designers have been toying with the idea of an in-helmet displays for a while now, and considering that spacewalking astronauts currently rely on paper checklists taped to their arms, such a display represents a pretty big technological leap forward.


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