Pressure suit design that would allow a low pressure-adapted being to survive on Earth?
I have read questions such as these two about aliens adapted to environments with high atmospheric pressure experiencing negative effects when exposed to Earth's comparatively low atmospheric pressure. This question is different because I want to know how to prevent negative effects from occuring with the opposite situation.
Mars has ~1% of the atmospheric pressure and 38% of the surface gravity of Earth. Some Martians, who are comparable in mass and body plan to Humans, want to visit Earth for cultural exchange. But exposure to a hundred times the air pressure and nearly three times the gravity under which they've evolved will very probably kill them. Humans offer to provide them with pressure suits, but a Human spacesuit is designed to maintain high internal pressure compared to vacuum.
Would a suit allowing a Martian to withstand Earth's conditions, by maintaining low internal pressure, have to be significantly different in structure and design from the spacesuits that Humans use? If she were supplied with the CO2 and H2 she breathes instead of deadly oxygen, could a Martian gear up in a standard Apollo-era NASA spacesuit with no design alterations and survive on Earth? Otherwise, what changes would be needed for the suit to maintain low internal pressure without collapsing? Also, Earth's gravity isn't really an issue addressed by spacesuits made on Earth, but even with proper (de)pressurization, would it need to provide her with additional support to stand and walk under Earthly gravity while wearing it?
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/92763. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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