A small random curiosity, given we have seen general-purpose nanoswarms in the stories as clothing and cloaks and heck, magic staves; has anybody put one together that will work as a space suit or at least environmental/pressure armour?
And yes, that is because of a few scenes in Darkness Within, where being able to get into and out of a suit without having to dress yourself in it would have been so handy.
I think it might be possible that the (nano)materials science of the time of Darkness Within isn’t quite up to a mechanical counterpressure suit. Such a suit has got to be able to supply at least a fraction of a standard atmosphere in pressure, and that amount of force doesn’t seem to be something nanoswarms have been seen doing on-camera.
There are a number of technical difficulties to be overcome, including the one @JHPrime brings up (although smart-matter microbots are better at this than nanites, weakness in tension is an issue for them in general).
But the limiting factor here is really the matter of radiation and heat, two things which nanites really don’t like on the one hand, and which space is full of on the other. “Dry” nanites can be made somewhat tougher than cellular machinery-style “wet” nanobots, and yet. It’s the same problem that organic starships and habs, etc., face.
There are, however, jellysuits in canon, which are nanobiological constructs designed to start out as a blob, rather than a swarm, and flow over you in lieu of donning, but those overcome the radiation problem by having a thick, tough bioplastic external layer doing the job of “skin” in blocking radiation and having no active components. They’re even widely used both as tourist suits and as safety-escape suits, even though they aren’t as capable as a modern skinsuit.
The IN doesn’t stock them, though, because they insist on a more demanding milspec standard for their suits, on the grounds that very often they’re operating in what might charitably be called “atypically demanding” environments. Especially where heat and radiation are concerned.