STMP Uniforms as emergency pressure suit?

[werdegast]

While playing with my two year old son, who was wearing footed pajamas, I had a thought concerning the STTMP uniforms.

Since the uniforms are more or less one piece maybe they could be used as emergency pressure suits with the addition of gloves and a helmet.

The corridors do have life support equipment in the wall lockers according to Mr Scott's Guide to the Enterprise. I do not think it is much of a stretch to imagine helmet/glove lockers in other locations.

 

[Christopher]

Well, technically the TMP uniforms have stirrup pants over boots, so they're not airtight. Although theoretically they could've been designed to seal there and at the waist, I guess.

Pretty much all the uniform designs from TMP onward have used stirrup pants to keep the lines smooth, but have tailored the cuffs to look less like stirrup pants.

 

[werdegast]

I was always under the impression that the boots were part of the pants based on the description but the idea of stirrup pants is preferable to the pajama concept.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Emergency pressure suits? Emergency jammies, more like! Excellent for those over-night landing party missions.

 

[Timo]

The suits wouldn't need to be airtight in order to provide pressure. Just tight. A little hole here or there would not matter much. Just add a separate means of protecting the face and the hands from the lack of pressure, and some source of breathing air, and voila.

In order to be useful as protection, these suits would also have to feature some sort of thermal regulation, though. But we already saw such a thing woven into the TOS uniforms, as per "Spock's Brain", so it's no doubt available in the TNG clothing as well (probably all clothing, including civilian attire).

But a separate helmet would be an absolute necessity in turning the standard uniform into a useful survival asset. And if one can reach a helmet locker, one could probably also reach another type of Star Trek gadget: the life support belt of TAS fame. Much more practical than mechanical helmets and tight pajamas in protecting you from vacuum...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[werdegast]

Of course the life support belt could now be part of the the life support monitor belt buckle.

 

[Timo]

I bet it is. Would Kirk otherwise risk stepping out of his starship at the end of ST:TMP when his air supply was otherwise reliant on the whims of a childish machine?

I just wonder where the field generator went in the ST2-6 uniforms...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[werdegast]

I am afraid to ask!

The TMP style does look more comfortable to me and I prefer it to the others. Apparently though, the uniforms and not nearly as comfortable as they appear.

 

[Navigator_NCC2120]

Well, technically the TMP uniforms have stirrup pants over boots, so they're not airtight. Although theoretically they could've been designed to seal there and at the waist, I guess.

Pretty much all the uniform designs from TMP onward have used stirrup pants to keep the lines smooth, but have tailored the cuffs to look less like stirrup pants.

I found a wiki link that states TMP shoes were built into the pant leg.

Excerpt below from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Motion_Picture

Costumes and makeup

Each costume had the shoes built into the pant leg to further the futuristic look. An Italian shoemaker decorated by the Italian government for making Gucci shoes was tasked with creating the futuristic footwear. Combining the shoes and trousers was difficult, time-consuming, and expensive, as each shoe had to be sewn by hand after being fitted to each principal actor. There were difficulties in communication, as the shoemaker spoke limited English and occasionally confused shoe orders due to similar-sounding names. Jumpsuits, serving a more utilitarian function, were the only costumes to have pockets, and were made with a heavyweight spandex that required a special needle to puncture the thick material. A variety of field jackets, leisure wear, and spacesuits were also created; as these parts had to be designed and completed before most of the actors' parts had been cast, many roles were filled by considering how well the actors would fit into existing costumes.[61]

Reference Note 61 shows its source is from pages 127-128 from:
Sackett, Susan; Roddenberry, Gene (1980). The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-25181-3.


Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
/\

 

[jayrath]

I rather doubt that the uniforms -- even if they were made of the super duper materials cited above -- could serve as pressure suits. And even if they were, that doesn't mean they're space suits. Pressure suits were (and are) created for high-G flying, so that pilots don't black out. So what's the point in space, if we have nifty cancellation of inertia?

But let's say that they're all actually space suits, and that everyone has helmets at hand.

Umm . . . oxygen?

 

[Timo]

Pressure suits were (and are) created for high-G flying, so that pilots don't black out.

G-suits came a bit later than pressure suits in aeronautics; the first pressure-maintaining suits were introduced in the 1930s simply to allow for high altitude flying (but saw little practical application), while pressure trousers for regulating blood flow were operationally introduced only after WWII.

Umm . . . oxygen?

In "Squire of Gothos" already, we see a beltpack supposedly capable of providing it. Simple compressed air might suffice, but no doubt future technology could use dense liquid oxygen and then extensively recycle the air. It could all be easily built into this putative helmet to be worn with the uniform. Something similar seems to be going on with the life support belts, too.

In a semi-conventional setup, I think the big bottleneck would be gloves. If the uniform is to provide vacuum survivability in an emergency, it's simple to don a survival helmet in a matter of seconds (provided one is handily available in a nearby locker), but it takes quite a while to get pressure gloves on, especially when pressure is lost. This regardless of whether the gloves provide pressure by virtue of being airtight (in which case they would require their own supply of air or other pressure gas) or simply tight. The act that is supposed to preserve one's manipulative abilities requires the very abilities! What to do? Pull the helmet on to preserve consciousness, only to find out one cannot pull on the gloves any more because the hands no longer work? Or pull on the gloves while one still can, only to succumb to loss of air, the pain in your ears, the pressure differential between your lungs and the environment?

If the gloves are made easily donnable with materials technology (say, they shrink in place automagically), one might just as well have the whole survival gear be made in this manner, and have it stashed in a locker, rather than force the user to wear an uncomfortably tight survival suit 24/7.

Timo Saloniemi