A new type of spacesuit, originally mentioned in this Popular Science article, is actually being worked on by a team at MIT, lead by aeronautics researcher Dava Newman.

According to this brief, the Biosuit

will be skin-tight, but still easy to move around in. In contrast, suited-up astronauts expend about 70% of their energy just trying to bend their heavily-encased arms and legs.

The MIT article discusses how the suit will be revolutionary:

Newman's prototype suit is a revolutionary departure from the traditional model. Instead of using gas pressurization, which exerts a force on the astronaut's body to protect it from the vacuum of space, the suit relies on mechanical counter-pressure, which involves wrapping tight layers of material around the body. The trick is to make a suit that is skintight but stretches with the body, allowing freedom of movement.

Over the past 40 years, spacesuits have gotten progressively heavier, and they now weigh in at about 300 pounds. That bulk -- much of which is due to multiple layers and the life support system coupled with the gas-pressurization -- severely constrains astronauts' movements.

It's going to be a little while before these are available for actual use though.

Newman anticipates that the BioSuit could be ready by the time humans are ready to launch an expedition to Mars, possibly in about 10 years. Current spacesuits could not handle the challenges of such an exploratory mission, Newman says.