Sci-Fi Space Suits That Never Were

Lets face it, today's bulky space suits make you look like the Pilsbury Dough boy - hardly the way to get that cute diaper-wearing astronaut grrl to notice your fabulous gravity-free bod. What the world needs is space suits like they used to draw in the good old days, before boring things like real world physics and down-to-earth budget constraints ruined everything.

Atomic Rocket: Space Suits offers up pictures of dozens of imaginative designs that will ensure that you're the toast of every space station tailgate party. Just remember to follow the immortal words of Larry Niven in The Hole Man: "You don't leave your fly open in a pressure suit."

Of course, things are much harder in the real world than on the pages of a science fiction novel. Faced with the challenge of producing safe equipment, NASA has created some extremely odd designs, like the awkward armored suit on the right.

Still, there's hope: Modern technology promises to usher in an era of highly flexible and svelte space gear. All we have to do is avoid an accidental global nuclear war while the boffins do their thing.

Atomic Rocket: Space Suits [via Boing Boing Gadgets]