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I've already considered that they may file their horns down, but keeping in mind that their horns gradually regrow, it is an inconvenient solution.

This is what their horns typically look like:

They do have very strong neck muscles, but I don't want the helmet to be overly cumbersome.

I'm open to other solutions that circumvent a helmet, too, but still fill the required needs, which are:

• Allows the alien to breathe in space or on inhospitable planets


• Keeps their head at the correct pressure in low and high pressure environments


• Protects the head from radiation, heat and cold


• Protects the eyes from intense light

Details about the horns:

• Their horns have no blood supply or nerves except at the base; the base of the horn is responsible for regrowing, repairing, and shedding the horn.


• They can withstand large temperature ranges (albiet less so in the cold margins) provided that the transition is slow, otherwise the horns will fracture.


• If exposed to sand storms or very acidic environments, the horns will wear down rapidly or in the latter case, decompose.


• When the horn is regrowing, a velvet like sheath with a blood supply conceales it. If this blood supply is completely constricted, the growing horn will die and fall off. If not enough blood is allowed, the horn will be bendy, like cartilage, and grow at a reduced rate.


• The horns regrow from the base, not the tip. They are triggered to fall off entirely when a high margin of damage has been accumulated. (Assume they have an innate way of detecting this without pain-triggering nerves, like how a tree can regrow from being cut down, or how plants have measures of repairing themselves when injured without feeling pain)

The technology that they have available to them is equal to what you can expect from space-fairing human technology, as they were uplifted by humans at their equivalent of the Bronze Age. Assume this technology is advanced enough to make self sustaining migrant ships to traverse the Milky Way, but not advanced enough to travel near lightspeed, nor resourceful enough to entirely colonize barren, unsustaining planets.

Standard sleeves that glue over your horns

Since the horns are not damaged by the vacuum of space, you simply put a semi-permanent sleeve on them at the appropriate location. The sleeves are made in a variety of sizes, but all have a common outside diameter. They have a polished, hardened surface with a locking ring.

When donning the suit, you thread your horns through the standard sized holes, which lock into the standard sleeve.

Epoxy would fill the gap between the manufactured piece and the particular form of your horns. A formulation of epoxy would be used that is vulnerable to being dissolved by a particular chemical unlikely to be found in regular operations. Or a coating of cyanoacrylate would be laid down first. That is dissolvable by acetone, unlike epoxy.

Astronauts would typically have these installed as they elevate in the space program to where they would be fitted for a suit. They could have them removed when the government said "you are done with space travel for awhile".

Lots of men who were not actually in the space program would get them to impress the ladies.

I dont see much of a problem?

This is the helmet NASA made: https://www.nasa.gov/images/content/345643main_grunsfeld-m_946-710.jpg

It fits over the head and locks down on a ring on the suit. Looking at the rest of the suit, you can see that the hands for instance dont have a full "skeleton" around them to keep it pressurized. And the helmet of your horned space faring aliens will be able to do similar things.

Make the helmet in two or three parts (or more if theres more horns). First you put a space-suit like material over the horns like the one's around the hands, with nice padding to keep warm. With a locking ring similar to the one around the neck at the base of the horn material. You lock together the Rings around each horn with the front and back piece(s) of the helmet, creating a seal around both the horn openings and the neck. Done!

Basically it all just comes down to size:

Easy as pi with Acme Space Division's Helm360, which offers basic functionality in an astounding range of bowl and neck sizes:

We also offer our Inalienable-2500, a line of comfortable bespoke helmets, suitable for our extraterrestrial customers with difficult to manage appendages or anatomy:

If your Star Armada is currently experiencing Imperial budgetary cuts and you're looking for a more economical but still smart design, try our Tholium-1000 line! Comes in a variety of neck openings and the cranio-vault can be expanded with our patented inflation technology to accommodate a large number of diverse crew members:

One time use custom instant helmets.

Your horned folks are probably going to have all kinds of different length, shape and number of horns. They will need custom helmets.

I propose they could apply the helmets as expanding foam, or something like shrink wrap. It would cover irregular horns and faces and then rapidly harden or stiffen as appropriate. The film / foam would be applied directly onto the wearer, with the face/plate and respiratory apparatus as a framework already on.

The result would be a helmet which recognizably has the horn structure of the individual wearer, which is the dream we all dream of.

Removing the helmet would mean destroying it, or at least the film / foam component. It would break away. Perhaps these materials would be recyclable or maybe thrown out. I have to think the face plate and attachment framework would be reused, and not be specific to an individual head shape.

I don't get why you're so worried about cumbersome unless you were thinking the helmet had to be a sphere.

Think of the horns as structural members, maybe supporting a heat radiator panel between them. They don't need a lot of space around them so an flexible sleeve would work quite well. It could be made with nested semi-rigid sections like the collapsible bowl or cup sets used by campers.