海角大神

If you鈥檝e made batsuits for and robot suits for the Black Eyed Peas, what鈥檚 a logical next step? How about a real-life spacesuit for Space X, the private company run by Elon Musk.

Jose Fernandez, a veteran Hollywood costume designer and effects artist, got the call last year to help what Mr. Musk has called a 鈥�21st century spacesuit鈥� that emphasizes looks as well as utility.

Current suit designs can vary widely in cost and function 鈥� NASA鈥檚 current Extravehicular Activity suit, which helps protect astronauts from radiation and extreme temperatures during spacewalks 鈥� costs a cool $12 million, while a suit designed to be worn during launches costs a relatively modest $180,000, .

Despite the variety of designs, aesthetic concerns tend to be a relatively low priority. But in a move that mirrors many of Musk鈥檚 efforts, including a and creating , SpaceX also intends to outfit its astronauts in suits that are fashionable in addition to functional.

鈥淲e are putting a lot of effort into design esthetics, not just utility. It needs to both look like a 21st century spacesuit and work well,鈥� Musk session in 2015.

Mr. Fernandez, he originally only had two weeks to create a design, began by creating a helmet. He eventually worked with Musk for six months on the design, which SpaceX is now reverse-engineering to make it functional for spaceflight. The suit is expected to be released in the next few months.

鈥淸Musk] kept saying, 鈥淎nyone looks better in a tux, no matter what size or shape they are,鈥� and when people put this space suit on, he wants them to look better than they did without it, like a tux,鈥� he told Bleep. 鈥淵ou look heroic in it.聽It鈥檚聽an iconic thing be a part of.鈥�

While it might seem somewhat over the top to hire a Hollywood costume designer who鈥檚 worked on a variety of superhero movies to create a real-life space suit, some of the limitations of Hollywood costumes also mirror real-life design issues for astronauts.

The polycarbonate helmet design for NASA鈥檚 Extravehicular Mobility Unit 鈥� an used on the International Space Station 鈥� for example, is 鈥渁 bit like Michael Keaton鈥檚 Batman,鈥� writes NASA flight instructor Robert Frost last year.

鈥淗is stiff cowl prevented him from turning his head, so he turned his body - except that we can avoid some of the body turning by making the helmet oversized so that the head can turn within it and then giving the visor as much field of view as possible,鈥� Mr. Frost adds.

Navigating substantial gravity on Mars could also require additional changes to current space suit designs, which are focused on helping astronauts navigate in microgravity, such as on the Moon.

鈥淲丑别苍 walking configuration, it will be different," Amy Ross, lead of the advanced pressure-garment team at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston told Space.com last year. One key change would be to make the suits more flexible in the lower body to allow astronauts to pick up rocks and other samples from the surface of Mars.

While NASA is currently testing a variety of new designs, including some that place , current designs still maintain the agency鈥檚 aesthetic.

For one thing, making a suit that can fit astronauts of various sizes or shapes is a concern, in part to keep costs down, writes Mr. Frost of NASA.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to have to produce custom suits for every person, so the suit of the future should be designed such that it can easily be modified to fit the astronauts and cosmonauts,鈥� he writes. 鈥淭he spacesuit should be designed such that a neutral body posture requires no effort to maintain.鈥�