It's what they wear in the 31st century

I belong to a Legion of Super-Heroes group on Facebook and someone posted about essential equipment for the Legionnaires. The OP then made mention of transuits.  He asked:

"I can't recall; were the suits ever said to have any special qualities? Protective? Self-cleaning? 'Smart' Fibers?"

I replied that even though it was Saturday but that is simply not enough time for me to give my dissertation on what transuits should or should not do and how their usage breaks the science fiction. Now it doesn't really break the sci-fi of the Legion but I feel their usage has only been partially considered.

So what is a transuit?  The DC Wikia describes it as:

The Legion Transuit is a thin, translucent polymer that fits snuggly over the top of a Legionnaire's costume. The suit enabled them to function in environments without a sustainable atmosphere, such as outer space. The suit is durable enough to protect them from extreme temperatures and pressure.

And just to clarify, the quick definition of polymer is:

a substance that has a molecular structure consisting chiefly or entirely of a large number of similar units bonded together, e.g., many synthetic organic materials used as plastics and resins.

It's never been explicitly stated how Saran Wrap was able to do all of this. I can not find the first appearance of the transuit.  Some of the earliest mentions of space suits were accompanied an advanced headglobe. 

It appeared initially that the transuit was something that the wearer had to put on. But later it appeared that once activated, it would just envelope the wearer and seal. The method of activation is still unclear.  Did it have a manual activation?  Was it activated by a thought from the wearer?  Or did it also have an automatic activation in cases of explosive decompression?

Depictions of the suits during the Reboot showed a metal cuff that presumably housed all the environmental circuitry but artists have been fairly inconsistent in showing the suit and it's armband.  

But what does it really do?

Here is where the usage of the transuit in stories becomes somewhat inconsistent.  First, we must look at what our current era 21st century spacesuits do.

1. pressurize for the vacuum of space

2. protect against the cold of space while providing a cooling environment inside

3. provide a breathable atmosphere

4. shield from UV radiation

We know it to be self-sealing which would help in case the suit is punctured in some what.  It would have to be somewhat ablative that it could help cushion against space debris and other impacts, In fact, At one point, Dawnstar dives into a cruiser to save Light Lass.  Light Lass is unharmed but Dawnstar gets cut up.  Shoulda worn a transuit Dawny.

Now, as far as additional functions like drinking water and waste management, I would assume would not be included no matter how far Mon-El wants to carry Shadow Lass across the galaxy. By the way, that's a dumb idea but I'm not talking about space travel methods this post.

We have never seen, though, is what are the upper limits of temperature management.  When 5 Legionnaires were stuck on an asteroid, they built a fire to keep warm (nevermind that they probably did not have the oxygen to sustain a fire). 

And when on hothouse world of Tharr the White Witch doesn't use one, instead relying on her spells.I have no idea why other than Levitz adding some unnecessary plot point.  We have no in-continuity detail on Tharr's temperatures, however the planet Venus can get up to 462 degrees Celsius so we could assume Tharr would be somewhat similar. 

But as written, should we infer that transuits fail at such high temperatures?  If Legionnaires can exit and re-enter a planetary atmosphere with a transuit, then it can withstand the heat and friction from traveling through the atmosphere quite easily.  Our modern day space shuttles withstand heat up to 1649 degrees Celsius, much hotter than the temperatures on Venus and likely Tharr.  Maybe the explanation is that it can sustain a higher heat for a shorter time, but lower heat for a longer time is more taxing.  A transuit would have to be able to protect automatically against light as sunlight is quite brilliant without an atmosphere to help diffuse it.  If you can barely look at the sun on the planet Earth, you won't be able to look at it at all in space. So it must be self regulating to a point for light, temperature, and pressure. Similarly, liquid environments should pose very little stress to a transuit.

What about radiation though?  One would have to assume that with all the outer space missions the Legionnaires go on, that transuits would have to offer a bit more in radiation protection that what our modern space suits do. Here's where the science fiction really starts to break down. Ultra Boy has been shown to keep up with Mon-El and Dawnstar, but to do so, he relies on a transuit for protection since he is not using invulnerability. Earth is surrounded by the Van Allen radiation belts so the transuit would have to offer him protection from that as well.  These things have to be pretty tough but it also means that while they are not forcefields, they are going to prevent a lot attacks from various supervillains.

 

Maybe Tinya should have just activated her transuit instead? But this raises other conundrums as well.  In the Reboot, Andromeda wore a transuit to protect her from lead poisoning, but she was exposed because those transuits were not self-sealing and hers was torn in a confrontation.  What else could a transuit do?  Protect Superman(boy) from green Kryptonite radiation and red sun rays?  Could it filter out all visible light to give Night Girl her powers even during daylight? Enemies with heat powers would be defeated easily as well as those with gas and pheromone powers.  Hail the almighty transuit!