MIT is working on a suit that would provide "mechanical counter- pressure" through a skin-tight inner layer, according to a report by the MIT Man-vehicle Lab in Cambridge, Mass.

In other words, instead of pressurized air keeping astronauts from exploding, as so gruesomely depicted in many sci-fi space films, the skin-tight suit would hold them together. It would be topped off by the usual pressurized helmet.

The scientists at MIT say their design would solve a number of other problems associated with existing suits, among them maintaining pressure at the joints when astronauts bend down, and allowing the skin to breath and sweat because the inner suit would be porous.