destrekor
Lifer
- Nov 18, 2005
- 28,799
- 359
- 126
y'know, stillsuits never would've worked, you'd boil in one.
I'm not so sure, not given enough research and insight.
"It's basically a micro-sandwich; a high-efficiency filter and heat-exchange system. The skin-contact layer is porous. Perspiration passes through it, having cooled the body. Motions of the body, especially breathing, and some osmotic action provide the pumping force. With a Fremen suit in good working order, you won't lose more than a thimbleful of moisture a day - even if you're caught in the Great Erg."
As long as you find a way to keep the actual filtering and processing away from the skin, you can essentially create a very lightly-filled water cooling system.
As a first order action, any actual heat is passed from the body to the suit's pre-treated water supply; the next stage is to then allow that heat to radiate away from the suit through what I would presume to be something akin to micro-channels of thin metallic film; following that, a filtering system would collect any residual heat that can be trapped within the deposits but, most importantly, simply the act of filtering is the priority in this stage. With passive radiative cooling, it seems plausible with the right design.
That design, in a flexible and wearable suit, just doesn't sound like it could be achievable today. The biggest obstacle would be incorporating a passive "heatsink layer" where the minor airflow on the surface could dissipate the heat faster than the solar energy can penetrate the entire assembly. Again, I see that as simply something of a material science challenge that can't readily be addressed yet, not something that is to be written off forever. Tomorrow? Hell no, but with the progress they have made into the various nano materials, there is a whole lot of untapped potential nobody has even dreamed of yet, let alone stillsuits.