Have space agencies ever had to create six fingered gloves?

[willpittenger]

I was watching a show in which they featured a guy with six fingers on each hand (actually, 5 fingers and a thumb). That got me thinking he would have to get special mittens (if that was how he keeps his hands warm). Somehow I starting thinking about space suits right then.

Would the extra finger cost more? I figure more surface area would make the glove more vulnerable to damage.

 

[CalliArcale]

I was watching a show in which they featured a guy with six fingers on each hand (actually, 5 fingers and a thumb). That got me thinking he would have to get special mittens (if that was how he keeps his hands warm). Somehow I starting thinking about space suits right then.

Would the extra finger cost more? I figure more surface area would make the glove more vulnerable to damage.

I would think the extra finger would indeed cost more, but I don't think the additional damage would be so much of an issue. It's not *that* much more surface area, and an astronaut simply being taller would be more of an issue in that respect.

But the real cost killer would be the fact that US spacesuits are not custom-fit. The EVA suits in particular are mix-and-match. They'd have to make a new glove for this one guy, and that'd cost a lot -- especially since that would include design work to make the glove fit properly.

I suspect a six-fingered astronaut would not be allowed to fly. They've got so many applicants that they're able to turn away massively qualified candidates in favor of slightly more massively qualified candidates, so I would bet that even tiny physical abnormalities would tend to get people rejected.

 

[PistolPete037]

IIRC, NASA was about to do that when some sword-wielding Spaniard named Inigo Montoya burst through the door yelling something about his murdered father and... well... you know the rest.

 

[earth_bound_misfit]

haha Pete.

Wouldn't any person in the first world get the extra finger removed these days? I reckon I would, wouldn't want to be sticking out like a sore thumb

 

[Zipi]

Wouldn't any person in the first world get the extra finger removed these days? I reckon I would, wouldn't want to be sticking out like a sore thumb

Why to remove it if it is perfectly working? Think about the keyboard typing speed & other possibilities what it would allow. Of course there are downsides like pretty hard to find even regular glove that fits, but those are solvable issues. I would say more benefits than annoyances.

 

[Boris_Badenov]

IIRC, NASA was about to do that when some sword-wielding Spaniard named Inigo Montoya burst through the door yelling something about his murdered father and... well... you know the rest.

You beat me to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3W5GDkgf2w

 

[CalliArcale]

Wouldn't any person in the first world get the extra finger removed these days? I reckon I would, wouldn't want to be sticking out like a sore thumb

Why to remove it if it is perfectly working? Think about the keyboard typing speed & other possibilities what it would allow. Of course there are downsides like pretty hard to find even regular glove that fits, but those are solvable issues. I would say more benefits than annoyances.

Extra digits are often removed, but this is because they are usually not functional and would get in the way. Rarely, a person is born with a fully functional extra digit, and in that case, it's usually left intact since it generally is not a problem to have another finger or toe. And if the person wants gloves without the expense of getting them custom fit, he or she can always learn to knit. ;-) (Gloves are kinda fun, because each piece gets done before you can get bored with it.)

There was a polydactyl (extra digits) kid born in California recently. He has six on each limb -- so a total of 24 digits. They are so perfectly formed that nobody noticed them at first, even after he was born, and the pediatrician advised keeping them. His father was also polydactyl (it apparently runs in the family) but his extra digit was malformed and was removed shortly after he was born. But that inspired the dad to count fingers and toes, revealing how blessed this child turned out to be in the phalanges department. ;-) I've seen videos of adults with six fully-functional fingers; it takes a while to notice anything at all unusual, so they actually don't stick out like sore thumbs.

 

[rfoshaug]

Wouldn't any person in the first world get the extra finger removed these days? I reckon I would, wouldn't want to be sticking out like a sore thumb

Why to remove it if it is perfectly working? Think about the keyboard typing speed & other possibilities what it would allow. Of course there are downsides like pretty hard to find even regular glove that fits, but those are solvable issues. I would say more benefits than annoyances.

If it prevents you from flying in space, you might want it removed even if it is functional.

I haven't been posting much at SDC for the last year or so. I'm glad to come back and see that important matters are still being discussed!

 

[kelvinzero]

I suspect it would be an incredible extra cost to develop a glove with six fingers. This is going to be a long way behind wheelchair access to the ISS.

Historically, if the astronaut was too tall or too short you choose another astronaut. I remember reading something about not being able to send women to space for a long time because there was no suit designed for them. That might have been about russian astronauts.

 

[willpittenger]

I remember reading something about not being able to send women to space for a long time because there was no suit designed for them. That might have been about russian astronauts.

Actually, the Russians sent up a woman as their first "rendezvous flight." However, she was only a passenger and there was no real attempt at rendezvous as the spacecraft had no maneuverability.

 

[kelvinzero]

I never said they didnt

This was probably the article I vaguely remembered.
http://www.space.com/news/spaceagencies ... 10126.html

If so, it was perhaps just an issue of body size.

That actually strengthens my point though because if it is a big deal to make a suit for normal variations in height, thus excluding half your population right off, you are not going to cater to six fingered people.

I suspect that adding an additional finger is a massive difference to the engineering of the glove. Probably all the tools and all the testing would have to be duplicated.