In space, lunar suits are the pinnacle of fashion, and NASA officials on Wednesday had the most praise for what astronauts will wear when they set foot on the moon in the coming days. next year.
The latest lunar spacesuit — black with orange and blue highlights — comes from Axiom Space in Houston.
At an event in Houston launching the new suit, an engineer from Axiom, who was demonstrating the moon suit, showed how he could easily squat and move around. Large transparent bubbles around the head provide a wide view as well as light, which will be important when astronauts enter the obscured craters near the moon’s south pole. It also has a holder for a high definition camera.
Astronauts will enter and exit the spacesuit through a hatch in the back.
“You get your feet in, your arms in, and then a little shimmer when you put on the suit,” says Russell Ralston, deputy program manager for off-vehicle operations at Axiom Space. “And then we will close the hatch.”
On the back is a backpack-like machine containing a life support system. “You can think of it as a very fancy oxygen tank and air conditioner, combined into one,” said Mr. Ralston.
The main difference between the prototype shown today and the one that will go to the moon is that the things that will go to the moon will be white instead of dark. “It was really for the temperature reason,” Mr. Ralston said.
By turning to this private company, NASA is once again relying on new commercial spaceflight businesses to deliver key components faster and cheaper than it could develop on its own.
The approach follows the template that NASA used when hiring Elon Musk’s company SpaceX to take astronauts to and from the International Space StationAnd to the surface of the moon in the mission for which the Axiom suit was designed.
The moon suit is an important component required for The Artemis Program, Will Return Astronauts to the Moon as NASA faces increasingly stiff competition in space and on the moon from China’s booming space industry. The Axiom suit will be worn during the Artemis III mission, the program’s first moon landing, scheduled for 2025.
Axiom is led by Michael Suffredini, who previously served as NASA’s program director for the International Space Station. The company mainly focuses on low-Earth orbit, send private astronauts to the ISS and build a separate module to add to the space station.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
