A question for the authors: Aili Lavena's hydration suit

[JD]

Oh yeah, duh.

 

[Christopher]

Again, I'm not sure the helmet needs to be as heavy as an EVA suit helmet, because it doesn't need to be pressurized. Maybe something along similar design lines but lighter and sleeker?

 

[JD]

I've always pictured the helmet as fairly skin tight over most of her head, with a thin transparent face mask. Kinda like the hood of a wetsuit only with the face mask as part of it.

 

[Christopher]

^I've imagined it similarly. After all, she doesn't "breathe" the water through her nose or mouth, but through it circulating across her gill crests. So it's not analogous to a human's spacesuit helmet where you need a volume of air around the head so you can breathe freely. The crests are where you need enough open space within the suit to allow circulation, which is why I described the suit's gill vanes as rigid-walled.