The papers want to know whose shirts you wear

July 14, 2015 6:31 PM

Metafilter's Own™ Adam Savage has a tradition (2014, 2013, 2012) of taking an incognito floor walk through Comic-Con clad in an elaborate costume. This year he upped the ante, bringing Colonel Chris Hadfield (yes, that Chris Hadfield) along with him, both of them clad in replica 2001 spacesuits.
posted by adamrice (46 comments total)

SPOILER: Special celebrity (well, in the realm of space-oriented fiction, anyway) encounter near the end.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:47 PM on July 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

I was having a ton of fun, and THEN he brought out the lunch box, and I almost literally squeed.
posted by chimaera at 6:49 PM on July 14, 2015 [5 favorites]

geek approved
posted by shockingbluamp at 6:49 PM on July 14, 2015

I love watching how focused Hadfield is during the suit prep. It feels like he kind of knows it's a costume, and that all he's really doing is hooking up a fish-tank pump, but at the same time, there's something in the back of his brain going "This is a space suit. You need this to live. Get it right."
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:57 PM on July 14, 2015 [29 favorites]

"This'd be a lot easier in zero-g."


"No."
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:58 PM on July 14, 2015 [23 favorites]

Best part is when asavage cuts the tube too short and immediately goes to use the body of a Sharpie as a coupler!
posted by zachlipton at 7:00 PM on July 14, 2015 [12 favorites]

Also, I get that they probably couldn't have got a license for "Girl From Ipanema," but surely the could have got "Also sprach Zarathustra."
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:05 PM on July 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

I loved everything about this. Now I want to look at Comicon 2015 pictures and see if anyone shared pictures of them without knowing it!
posted by Joey Michaels at 7:05 PM on July 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

What's with the brown suede boots?
posted by octothorpe at 7:07 PM on July 14, 2015

Real talk- if the Liberal party were to dump Trudeau and nominate Hadfield tomorrow, they would have a majority for the next ten years.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:10 PM on July 14, 2015 [26 favorites]

octothorpe - closest to actuall boots used

[–]mistersavage 2139 points 1 day ago

About the Uggs. The original 2001 boots are Tebbutt & Hall 60's firefighter boots. With a suede finish. They're beyond rare. Bizarrely Uggs are darned close. It's very fun to email an astronaut and say "Be sure to bring Uggs!"
quote from asavage on reddit
posted by nickggully at 7:13 PM on July 14, 2015 [4 favorites]

Ok, who's Frank Poole?
posted by clavdivs at 7:15 PM on July 14, 2015

"In some cultures this means we're married."
posted by nathan_teske at 7:24 PM on July 14, 2015 [10 favorites]

I was surprised when Adam Savage cut the tubing so quickly after basically eyeballing the measurement, and sure enough, it was too short. Luckily he's Adam Savage and he just MacGyvered up a solution.
posted by A Bad Catholic at 7:54 PM on July 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

You could see the condensation build up on the inside of the faceplate during the walk... and then the "We route the air through to the front of the helmet and blow down" conversation during the debrief"... just perfect. I was hoping for a shot where they're holding their hands to their ears, a la TMA-1 transmission sequence...

There's a really good documentary about the design process for the original Apollo suits. It's as interesting for the problems they had managing the design process as for the technical stuff. Massive corporate culture clashes ain't in it. What do you expect when you try and manage Play-Tex like a giant defense company?

I wonder if Hadfield kept his suit?
posted by Devonian at 7:59 PM on July 14, 2015 [7 favorites]

I wonder if Hadfield kept his suit?

Even if it's a bespoke custom fit (I have no idea if it is, but for the sake of my argument...), I'd imagine most of the parts and innards are too expensive/proprietary to just give away the whole thing to every astronaut who's worn one. I'd be less surprised if they're cannibalized and parted out for the next crew's suits.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:18 PM on July 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Hadfield mentioned having trained in suits that had already been in space, in an offhanded way that made me want to lay down on the ground for a minute. So they get re-used apparently.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:29 PM on July 14, 2015 [6 favorites]

Ah, no, I was talking about the replica suit.

The real suits on the ISS are kept there - the astronauts have some personalised components, but most of the suits are generic. I don't know whether they get to take their personal bits back with them (it's stuff like gloves and leggings) but I doubt it - I imagine they'll get tossed with the rest of the trash in the normal burn-up-on-reentry way.
posted by Devonian at 8:29 PM on July 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

I zipped myself up in a sleeping bag in the fridge for two years for my Victor Kaminsky cosplay, but I forgot to make a video of it. :(
posted by Guy Smiley at 8:36 PM on July 14, 2015 [4 favorites]

Oh man, this is a lot of fun.
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:37 PM on July 14, 2015

I wonder if Hadfield kept his suit?

I don't think he's the sentimental type.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 8:42 PM on July 14, 2015 [3 favorites]

It's a shame what happened to Mythbusters, but Adam Savage is a goddamned national treasure.

I wish he had been around when I was a kid - his relentless enthusiasm would have been such a welcome antidote to the Mountain Of Shit I got as a geeky, weird teenager.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 8:53 PM on July 14, 2015 [4 favorites]

Oh, the suit he wore at Comic-Con? I hope it has a long and fruitful life on display, earning donations for good causes.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:55 PM on July 14, 2015

It's such a hoot to watch Hadfield toss out little tidbits about the EVA suit cooling systems. To the layperson, perhaps mildly-interesting factoids, quickly forgotten. Adam, on the other hand, must furiously assemble precisely-engineered suit parts while processing this stream of hugely critical nuggets of information, straight from the source, for implementation on future builds. "Yeah, our suits have little heaters in each fingertips." (Adam's inner dialogue: Shit! Of course! Shopping list: urethane-coated nylon, tricot, silicone, inline cable voltage regulator reduced to 9 volts...).

I imagine for a craftsman like Adam, a conversation with someone like Hadfield must be exhausting--so much awesomeness, so many mind-blowing details to remember. What a blast to see these two together.

/geekout
posted by prinado at 9:23 PM on July 14, 2015 [8 favorites]

Hadfield: Awesome, but maintaining the awful stereotype of Canadian men as moustache aficionados.
posted by modernnomad at 9:24 PM on July 14, 2015

At Nerd HQ Adam talked a bit more about the making of the suit and his walkaround with Chris. The suit was actually made for a friend of Adam's and 'they'll be getting it....eventually.'

The whole panel is fun, with most of the panelists being deeply nerdy over the astronaut.
posted by ladyriffraff at 9:28 PM on July 14, 2015

So odd - I just listened to the Adam Savage podcast where he discussed this just this morning.

Yeah, the boots are Uggs and all the podcast people were verbally rolling their eyes at Uggs although they conceded they were really comfortable - "sweatpants for your feet".

Apparently the lunchbox/suit coolers also did indeed contain lunch, just like in the movie.

Next year: Adam Savage puts a Howard Johnson's in space.
posted by GuyZero at 9:31 PM on July 14, 2015

Pogo_Fuzzybutt: "It's a shame what happened to Mythbusters"

Wait, what happened to Mythbusters? I haven't watched it in years, but I assumed it was merrily chugging along.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 9:43 PM on July 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

I loved this when I watched it last night and got immediately nerd crushy jealous of the whole thing. And yeah, my favorite part is the post floor walk cart ride home with them just talking. Also, Col Hadfield just exudes that sort of intense stillness that folks in crazy stupid dangerous occupations seem to develop. Particularly funny watching it up against Adam's innate Tigger nature.
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:56 PM on July 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

Next year: Adam Savage puts a Howard Johnson's in space.

Oh, a small upended Italian Bistro, surely...?
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:57 PM on July 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

Wait, what happened to Mythbusters? I haven't watched it in years, but I assumed it was merrily chugging along.

I'm guessing either they're referring to getting rid of the build team (which I think was ultimately a good thing because it let them shake up and tighten the formula) or they're maybe referencing some jump-the-shark moment where they stopped being sufficiently scientifically rigorous, which is silly because they've always been as close to real science as Beakman's World was.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 10:10 PM on July 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm guessing either they're referring to getting rid of the build team (which I think was ultimately a good thing because it let them shake up and tighten the formula)

Yeah. It's a change I dislike. I think the show is worse for it. YMMV and all that.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 10:33 PM on July 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Ok, who's Frank Poole?

Neither, these are the suits from when Heywood Floyd and the rest of the team from Clavius base went to see the buried moon Monolith. The Poole/Bowman suits on Discovery are multi-coloured.
posted by PenDevil at 11:39 PM on July 14, 2015 [6 favorites]

Extreme Geeking.

As someone who, in the 80's, got beat up for liking Doctor Who, it's nice to have lived to see such a day of tolerance and inclusion.
posted by mikelieman at 11:42 PM on July 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

That was so fucking awesome I actually want to watch 2001 again. It takes a LOT of fucking awesome for that.
posted by happyroach at 12:43 AM on July 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

This is so much awesome. I loved everything about it, especially the montage of them posing for photos (once with a Princess Leia cosplayer!), and Savage trimming the plastic tubing with a santoku kitchen knife.
posted by Gelatin at 3:45 AM on July 15, 2015

Oh wow, the moment when Chris was slightly struggling with the suit and Adam saying that he put his head through first. Adam telling an actual astronaut how to put on a space suit! Too cool.
posted by pianissimo at 4:41 AM on July 15, 2015

Re: the recent changes to Mythbusters: My two favorite episodes of the original version were Alcatraz Escape and Duct Tape Island, which were both episode-long projects with just Adam and Jamie, so I'm actually loving the return to the stripped-down version where it's just Adam and Jamie doing interesting builds. YMMV, of course, and I do miss the build team, but I was surprised by how well the new format worked for me.
posted by pie ninja at 5:10 AM on July 15, 2015

This was utterly delightful, and it got me to finally buy The Martian, of all things.

My favorite part was how differently the two of them moved; Adam is quick and jumpy and kind of hectic, but Chris Hadfield clearly does not move unless he knows exactly what he's doing, and he's in no deep hurry about it; he's constantly calm and rather graceful.

Also I died a little of joy when he was getting into his suit and muttered something about how in the real thing you do arms-first instead.
posted by kalimac at 5:26 AM on July 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

Apparently, space-walking is hungry work. I bet Hadfield decided not to eat before putting on the savage Suit, to prevent having to take it off again for a nature call. That seems to have made him hungry.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:38 AM on July 15, 2015

My favorite part was how differently the two of them moved; Adam is quick and jumpy and kind of hectic, but Chris Hadfield clearly does not move unless he knows exactly what he's doing, and he's in no deep hurry about it; he's constantly calm and rather graceful.

In space, if you move quick and jumpy, you'll find yourself spinning and bouncing around the inside of your space station.

That's how I'm interpreting their mannerisms anyway. Because space.
posted by Fleebnork at 6:39 AM on July 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

I can't listen to the video at work, so this may already be mentioned:

Famously, Stanley Kubrick had all the sets, props, and costumes used in 2001 destroyed at the end of filming, because he didn't want the studio to warehouse any of it for subsequent SF B-Movies. When the sequel 2010 rebuilt everything from scratch, they weren't as scrupulous, which is why you later saw Discovery One's space suits show up on Babylon 5.

(Oddly enough and unrelated, the CGI artist for all the spaceship scenes drew inspiration for the earth ships from 2010's spaceship, the Leonov.)
posted by radwolf76 at 9:06 AM on July 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

That was neat. It's always fun watching Adam Savage make stuff. Here is a nice 30 minute of him doing a little metal work.
posted by exogenous at 9:25 AM on July 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

Also, Hadfield got to being an astronaut through being a test pilot.

That's a discipline which selects for thoughtful, precise movement.

In the Darwinian sense.
posted by Devonian at 11:01 AM on July 15, 2015

Also, Hadfield got to being an astronaut through being a test pilot.

You don't get out of the hell out of Sarnia (Sarnia represent!) by playing it fast and loose. You make a plan.

Because failure is not an option.
posted by GuyZero at 11:24 AM on July 15, 2015 [2 favorites]

Turns out Adam Savage did a second costume walk with a second companion.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:06 PM on July 16, 2015 [1 favorite]