What science fiction story first portrayed the use of a skinsuit instead of a pressurized space suit?

Question

In a recent discussion on another forum someone pointed to Niven's 1967 "Flatlander" as depicting a space suit that was a single skin-tight garment (except for a neck seal and a helmet) optionally covered with a separate protective/insulating layer (as required).

I'm not sure I recall it being depicted that way (I don't recall an oversuit being described), but I know that Pournelle used that exact pattern for his Mars suits in Birth of Fire (1976).

What was the first work that described a skintight garment to retain pressure by mechanical pressure against the skin (instead of a layer of pressurized atmosphere), with additional (more easily changed) over-layers for insulation/armour/etc.?

Based on requests for clarification, I'm looking for a space suit; an air-tight pressure suit for use in vacuum or extremely low pressure environments. It should completely cover the body, leaving no exposed skin, except for the head which should be enclosed in a helmet. This likely requires fiction that recognizes space as being a vacuum, or another planet or body having extremely low atmospheric pressure (less than a survivable level, so at most 0.06 bar).

I'm willing to accept a speculative article or essay (similar to a Popular Science-style future-tech "this is how the future might be" article) that examines the idea in a factual way as well as the use of the idea in fiction.

I'm not interested in a pulp cover depiction of a form-fitting space suit done purely for aesthetic reasons; this needs to be an intended design, with the skin suit explicitly maintaining the body's internal pressure. A clue would be the wearing of additional outer layers to protect against radiation, micrometeors, extreme temperature, chemicals/dust, etc.

Answer 1

The earliest example I know that isn't Heinlein's hyper-advanced alien tech was John Brunner's The Stardroppers (full-length stand-alone 1973), originally published in Analog as a novella under the title "Listen, the Stars" in 1962 and republished in an Ace Double in 1963.

In this, almost as a throw-away, some of those who explore using the titular new technology wear wet suits and scuba tanks for short-term vacuum protection. Skin protection and overall pressure support is by the skin-tight closed-cell neoprene material, while one must presume that the regulators are modified to provide positive pressure in vacuum and that there's enough chest and abdomen compression to permit exhalation against a minimum of about half an atmosphere in the regulator. This method was copied almost verbatim in Roger Zelazny's Blood of Amber (in the second Amber pentology), allowing Luke to bypass the barriers to reaching Ghostwheel.

Few details are provided in the novel, likely because the appearance was two small mentions a few pages apart, very much incidental to the main story -- but it's obvious Brunner was aware you don't need government-level technology for short term vacuum exposure.

Answer 2

I would suggest the first story that had a true skintight type of space suit (along with an invisible force field helmet as a bonus) was the 1958 Heinlein story Have Space Suit - Will Travel. In fact the story explicitly makes a contrast of the skintight version with the prevailing image of space suits at that time.

*She was wearing silvery tights, plus a little hump like a knapsack. She looked cute but not glamorous, for she was built like two sticks and this get-up emphasized it.

"Very fancy," I said. "Are you learning to be an acrobat?"

"Don't be silly, Kip; it's my new space suit—a real one."

I glanced at Oscar, big and bulky and filling the closet and said privately, "Hear that, chum?"

("It takes all kinds to make a world.")

"Your helmet won't fit it, will it?"

She giggled. "I'm wearing it."

"You are? 'The Emperor's New Clothes'?"

"Pretty close. Kip, disconnect your prejudices and listen. This is like the Mother Thing's suit except that it's tailored for me. My old suit wasn't much good—and that cold cold about finished it. But you'll be amazed at this one. Take the helmet. It's there, only you can't see it. It's a field. Gas can't go in or out."*

Answer 3

One possibility that you might consider is Gerry Anderson's Fireball XL5 (from 1962) where Steve, Matt and Venus don't actually wear any space suit. They breathe in the vacuum of space using "oxygen pills". The ultimate skin suit being skin!

Answer 4

EDIT: As DavidW pointed out in the comments I didn't remember this correctly. The text of the novel clearly suggest they were too bulky to be skintights.
I leave my original answer below.

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I'm not a 100% sure and I don't have the book here to check.

But I seem to recall that Black Destroyer (1937) by A.E. van Vogt had such space-suits.
He later (1950) re-used the novella as a significant part of the novel "Voyage of the Space Beagle".

(Could be the space-suits are in Voyage and not in Destroyer. But 1950 is still earlier than the other answers so far.)