Dainese, the motorcycle gear maker is making Space suits with Nasa. The goal is to make suit that provide the necessary pressurization of the body without the added bulk and subsequent lack of mobility that is common with current air-filled spacesuits.
Dainese in collaboration with MIT in a NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts project is developing a Biosuit for astronauts. The lines on the suit are filaments that mechanically create the necessary tension. The filaments follow the body’s Lines of Non Extension (LoNE), which is a biomechanical concept discovered and mapped by Arthur Iberall in the 1940s. LoNEs are said to neither stretch nor contract during a body’s movements.
The project came into existence when NASA became interested in the work Dainese had been doing with various hospitals to study how the body moves and work.
ESA was impressed with the Biosuit, but they had a slightly different need they wanted to tackle. Astronauts were coming home from space and needing to spend several days in a wheelchair because of herniating discs due to the elongation of the spine that occurs without the effects of gravity on the body. They gave Dainese their data and helped facilitate further collection from more time spent in space, and they asked Dainese to come up with a fix. 
The resulting Skinsuit, while not as fancy -looking as the Biosuit, is actually a super cool piece of tech. The bulk of the suit is made from a four-way elastic stretch material, while the upper section is rigid. The suit compresses from shoulders to feet to re-create the effects of gravity on the body.
The vertical gray lines are nylon belts that run the length of the suit, while the white horizontal lines are what’s used to constrict the suit. The positions of those lines are custom to the owner of the suit, and are determined based on studies from the ESA on the optimal placement.
Dainese hopes the ongoing project will be completed in time for the first human mission to Mars, which, according to the US national space policy, may happen by the mid-2030s.
Dainese, the Italian action-sports gear manufacturer is well known for its Motorcycle safety apparel. The gear maker has deep roots in motorcycling, snow, bicycle and equestrian sports. They released their first product in 1972 with a pair of motocross pants and later their first back protector in 1978, followed by knee sliders for leathers in ’80, the aerodynamic hump on leathers in ’88, toe sliders in ’93, carbon-fiber/Kevlar glove protection in ’95, and D-Air airbag technology in 2000.
