The Martian Space Suit

Well here is a small update on the Patch, was pretty straightforward, still have to do some shading and embroiding always makes this look a lot better. I'm still not convinced I have the right font, as a font source I used the ARES live title card from the video. This gave me several fonts with the most resemblance by Korataki ExtraLight, however it's E is too round, the S is oke though, Next up was Spacecolony Bold, which was close but also too round, I eventually settled on Stereo Gothic 400 and 800. Which is not perfect but I think it fits the most with style of the patch and art direction. Below is my image source for the font:

On to the Patch, here is the preliminary patch without the names, scaling and stuff is not optimal but it's a start, if anybody has any tips let me know!

ARES III Patch No Names.png

UPDATE; Here is version 2, still need to do some finetuning
Ares III Patch Names.png

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Could it be a climbing harness with a padded military gear belt over the waist band ala http://www.optactical.com/mowebe.htmlView attachment 487854

You beat me to it! That's exactly what I concluded in my research last night. That belt looks fairly close to the one in the reference images, although I am having some difficulty locating a black version with grey accents. It could be a custom job for the movie though. The Cobra buckles are attached to gear belt, two in front and one in back. There is a cobra D-ring attached towards the back on the right side, holding some webbing. I'm going to spend some more time researching tonight.
 
The text on the 'hard part' of the suit is a font called Nasalization.


-MJ
 

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Jockey, you're not using the SVG from the NASA Wikipedia page? Might save you some trouble...

Here are some more screencaps of the suit. Looks like it says "WATNEY ARES III" across the back of the helmet in that "Nasalization" font.


-MJ
 

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It would be a rather strange thing then, because the webbing is no standard Molle or Pals, if you look at the image where he is sitting in the sand, you can see that the spacing is not even. I believe it's something along the lines of what zookone said, a professional harness used in construction or rather industrial climbing, window cleaning and so on.

Also the Harness seems to emerge from the webbing sleeve towards the back somehow, which makes me believe the harness is one unit, but his arm is in the way.

Is it possible they commissioned a custom run of climbing harnesses just for the movie?
 

Nice work Soulinertia! However, to me it looks as if the background color is black, not navy. Also, there does not appear to be any shadow on the orange circle and the stars do not seem to be in any of the reference pictures. Finally, I am not convinced the three lines on the bottom are ones. They look like they spell out three in Roman numerals.

It would be a rather strange thing then, because the webbing is no standard Molle or Pals, if you look at the image where he is sitting in the sand, you can see that the spacing is not even. I believe it's something along the lines of what zookone said, a professional harness used in construction or rather industrial climbing, window cleaning and so on.

Also the Harness seems to emerge from the webbing sleeve towards the back somehow, which makes me believe the harness is one unit, but his arm is in the way.

Is it possible they commissioned a custom run of climbing harnesses just for the movie?

None of the industrial harnesses I've run across have the same leg and gear loops as the one in the reference pictures, which is why I thought the costume designer combined a recreational harness with a padded tactical belt. But I agree that the spacing of the webbing on the sides is not consistent. Also, the color of the fabric is not very tactical in nature, rather it looks to be a combination of black and grey threads, with grey accents. Further, this webbing runs only along the sides, as the back does not contain any webbing, but there is two layers still in the back.

Here's where I am at with the whole harness...

1. Red and light grey leg loops with orange, non-locking buckles. Buckles likely custom, as all climbing harnesses, industrial and recreational, have double back buckles. Also, leg loops appear to be flipped. Unpadded section with the buckle usually comes across the thigh, not on the inside of the thigh.
2. Same colored harness going into a padded belt with nonstandard webbing. Webbing stitched in with uneven increments. The color of the padded belt is black and grey.
3. Shiny, double back buckle for harness on right side, which is not too common among harness manufacturers. Most have the double back buckle on left side. Buckle maybe Petzl?
4. Harness tapers on left side. Closest harness I've found is an old Petzl Hirundos, but the taper and buckle are both on the wrong side. Also, the leg loops do not match.
PTZ0085.jpg
5. Underneath red and light grey harness is another strap coming out of the padded belt. How does it attach?
6. Vertical strap buckles attaching harness and suit are of the Cobra variety.
7. On right hand side, a Cobra D-ring buckle, attached by orange webbing to padded belt holds orange and black webbing.
8. Back of the harness has a NASA logo affixed. Embroidered?
9. Gear loops are orange or red. Attached at an angle, which is also uncommon.
10. Leg loop support webbing attached by a Cobra buckle.

This harness hunt has proved way more difficult than I thought. Attached are my reference images. Apologies for the longwinded post :unsure

Screen Shot 2015-06-10 at 10.39.32 PM.pngScreen Shot 2015-06-10 at 10.40.12 PM.pngScreen Shot 2015-06-10 at 10.41.01 PM.pngScreen Shot 2015-06-10 at 10.41.56 PM.pngScreen Shot 2015-06-10 at 11.05.12 PM.pngScreen Shot 2015-06-10 at 11.07.04 PM.pngScreen Shot 2015-06-10 at 11.07.25 PM.pngScreen Shot 2015-06-10 at 11.08.18 PM.png
 
Nice work Soulinertia! However, to me it looks as if the background color is black, not navy. Also, there does not appear to be any shadow on the orange circle and the stars do not seem to be in any of the reference pictures. Finally, I am not convinced the three lines on the bottom are ones. They look like they spell out three in Roman numerals.

Thanks! I'll take those details under consideration. I think I'll wait until we get a clearer image before I make too many revisions though.
 
@Jockey, you're not using the SVG from the NASA Wikipedia page? Might save you some trouble...

Here are some more screencaps of the suit. Looks like it says "WATNEY ARES III" across the back of the helmet in that "Nasalization" font.


-MJ

No I made it completely anew in Illustrator, so it's a vector. The NASA one had different proportions. I think the current font is pretty close.
 
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Yes bend215 you are absolutely right, neither the orange buckles on the leg loops nor the grey webbing there are on seem to belong there.
I also agree that they must have modded the hell out of the thing to get it to look like this. But i still believe they used an existing harness as the base, to many details wouldn't make sense otherwise.

1) The little black label on the main vertical loop usually denotes the breaking strength of the harness.
2) The load bearing stitching seems legit, and to my knowledge you need a special machine to sew those oval shapes.
3) The multi layered abrasion resistant material in the middle of the the leg loops, if you look closely between the black and the gray there is a layer of red to further thicken that.

To name just the few that jump at me on the first glance as being awfully specific for a prop.

3. Shiny, double back buckle for harness on right side, which is not too common among harness manufacturers. Most have the double back buckle on left side. Buckle maybe Petzl?

Here in Europe its is not uncommon to see a buckle on the right side in fact I wouldn't be sure whats more popular here.
The Lineup of this Manufacturer is basically split evenly: http://www.mammut.ch/de/productOverview/products_climbing_gear_klettergurte_at/Klettergurte.html

7. On right hand side, a Cobra D-ring buckle, attached by orange webbing to padded belt holds orange and black webbing.

The orange and black webbing is a so called "Doppelschlinge", transaltes to "double sling" but I am sure there is a better name for it in English,
it is used in canyoning and via ferrata. Like this one:
http://www.barrabes.de/fixe-siurana-doppelschlinge/p-28414?idvariedad=110359 haven't found the exact one yet.

9. Gear loops are orange or red. Attached at an angle, which is also uncommon.

And they are covert with a clear tubing also something not all producers do, pretty specialized in fact. It is meant to reduce the friction when clipping something on and minimize the risk of snagging on a loose thread when taking stuff off.
 
I took a really good look at the flight suit, it's no military one. Good luck making one.
The nameplate for the main character drives me nuts, as the book wouldn't at all suggest that he's a USAF astronaut, they should have given him mission specialist wings instead of USAF astronaut ones.
 
the Buckles on the suit are ITW AustriAlpin buckles, closest is the Cobra GT or SSteel ones. I doubt they used the SS ones, they are expensive as hell, cant believe they'd spend $850 on buckles. It may be chinese knockoffs or discontinued ones. Adam Savage talked about building a suit in his podcast. maybe he will be able to tell us where he gets some of the little stuff, the webbing is pen dyed, I did notice some of the logos were vinyl decals, some were falling off in the shots I saw. I use the buckles on some of my gear I made on my last tour of Afghanistan. They are very strong, Have hung out of a helo only being held by one of them.
 
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I doubt they used the SS ones, they are expensive as hell, cant believe they'd spend $850 on buckles.

What do they sell for in the US? Here in AUT they are not terribly expensive ranging from 6€ to 25€ depending on the model.
 
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Look what came in today . . .

Nice Soulinertia! I'm thinking about springing for a pair myself.

Also, I have identified some major components of the climbing harness since I last posted. The tri-slides on the vertical webbing connecting the chest plate and the climbing harness are from AustriAlpin. They are their asymmetrical belt buckle (45mm). The two on the sides in the front are the plain stainless steel, while the one in the middle looks to be anodized in an orange color. AustriAlpin mentions this option in their catalog. Further, the other tri-slides on the harness appears to be different sizes of the asymmetrical belt buckle from AustriAlpin, either the 33mm or the 25mm.

The webbing size corresponds to the size of the buckles. The vertical webbing connecting the harness to the chest plate would be 45mm and the webbing on the leg loops would be either 33mm or 25mm. I cannot tell which one though.

As mentioned earlier, the AustriAlpin D-Ring holds the orange/black webbing on the right side of the harness.

The buckles attaching the vertical webbing to the chest plate are indeed made by AustriAlpin as well, as Joker31 said. Specifically, they are the Nautic Cobra, judging by the shape. The costume designer appears to have attached a gold metal plate on top of them, attached with spanner screws. For the male end of the buckle, I do not know specifically how it is attached to the chest plate. It appears different than the standard male end of the Nautic Cobra.

Perhaps Floggy could source these buckles for us...?

The vertical webbing appears to just be 45mm grey webbing, with the red accents attached somehow, as in some parts, the red seems to be separating from the grey webbing.

Finally, the big reveal...drum roll please!

The climbing harness used is a Wild Country Vision Ziplock Sport. It is not in production anymore unfortunately, which makes it very hard to find. The leg loops have been modified on the harness to add grey webbing and the leg loop support webbing in the back was modified to accept a Cobra buckle, but other than that, this harness appears fairly unmodified. I could not find it online in my size, a medium. If anyone finds a vendor that sells the medium in red, please PM me! I would greatly appreciate it.

Now, the next major source of action is to identify the padded belt underneath the harness :)

Cheers,
Ben

WildCountryVision_Front.jpg4031da3e-dc72-4888-8fd8-c57281fa4c13_370_370.jpgfa188bed-2237-482a-a7ba-c102b63bbc90_370_370.jpg17ae8c1c-4677-4940-a1b0-b1e08543df78_333_370.jpg
 
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ITS is the US distributor for the buckles, impossible to go around them here in the states. I have tried because they gouge the hell out of us for them, I have a line on some chinese copies but they are not something I'd trust for climbing. there are at least 5 but probably 8 of them on the suit, I need to see the back of the suit. I see they have a plastic version we could use some magic painting techniques on to make it look right.there are some 2 stage paints that would make it look right.

The shoes look awesome, I'll have to go back over your posts to see the model, it looks like they dyed the sides a little didnt they?
 

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