The fashion statement for NASA's future moonwalkers goes beyond basic white to add some flag-worthy touches of red and blue.
But the color scheme for the "pumpkin suits" that astronauts wear during launches and landings is relatively unchanged, due to practical considerations. It turns out that the old orange, with a few blue accents added, is the new orange.
Both suit designs had their debut today at NASA Headquarters as part of the buildup to the Artemis moon program, which is due to put the first woman and the next man on the lunar surface by as early as 2024.
"We need to learn how to live and work on the surface of another world for long periods of time," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told students and educators who sat in on today's unveiling. "And in order to do that, friends, we need spacesuits. The Artemis Generation is now revealing its spacesuits for our generation."
The 1st woman and next man will go to the Moon in 2024 👩🚀👨🚀
Today, we previewed the next-generation #Artemis spacesuits that our astronauts will wear – 1 for launch and re-entry, and 1 for exploring the lunar South Pole. Watch a recap: https://t.co/e4cxB3rK6e pic.twitter.com/PtYSLqHq62
— NASA (@NASA) October 16, 2019
With that, Kristine Davis, a spacesuit engineer at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, trudged onstage in a prototype of the colorful spacewalking suit, known as the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or xEMU. Dustin Gohmert, project manager for Orion Crew Survival Systems, followed her into the spotlight, wearing a prototype of the suit designed for use during launch, re-entry and in-flight emergencies.
The suits are the result of years of research and redesign into suit usability. Not everyone was a fan of the red-white-and-blue color scheme, but the upgrades go far beyond the hues of the fabric: For example, the spacewalk suit has been reworked with high-tech materials to provide more flexibility in the shoulders, hips and knees. Astronauts wearing the xEMU suit will find it easy to lift their arms over their heads, a feat "which they can't do today, and couldn't do during the Apollo program," NASA spacesuit engineer Amy Ross said.
Bridenstine said the Apollo moonwalkers had to travel across the lunar surface by means of bunny hops, due to the lack of mobility in the leg joints of their spacesuits. "Now we're actually going to be able to walk on the surface of the moon, which is very different than our suits of the past," he said.
Taking a page from Russia's spacesuit playbook, NASA has designed the xEMU suits to be entered through the rear. The upper torso has an improved, multi-microphone audio system that gets rid of the need for the uncomfortable "Snoopy cap" that became famous in the Apollo era. And the helmet has a quick-swap protective visor that should cut down on wear and tear.
LIVE: Get a look at the spacesuits the 1st woman & next man will wear to explore the Moon in 2024! During this demo, check out the upgrades and view our 2 new suit prototypes – 1 for launch and re-entry, and 1 for exploring the lunar South Pole. Watch: https://t.co/MWSQEvomQs
— NASA (@NASA) October 15, 2019
The current spacewalking suit comes in a limited range of size configurations, which forced a postponement of NASA's first all-female spacewalk in March because the available size selection wasn't … um … suitable. (That first two-woman spacewalk, aimed at replacing a faulty battery unit on the International Space Station, is now set for Friday.)
Size shouldn't matter so much with the xEMU suit, which has swappable components to accommodate virtually any astronaut. "To be clear, Kristine is wearing a spacesuit that will fit all of our astronauts when we go to the moon," Bridenstine said.
The launch-and-entry suit will remain predominantly orange because that color shows up best if the astronauts have to make an emergency exit at sea. But the helmet is lighter and stronger, and the suit has touchscreen-compatible gloves as well as a new and improved built-in cooling system.
NASA still has to do further design refinements and testing to make sure the new spacesuits are good to go. The xEMU is due to get a tryout on the space station in the early 2020s, setting the stage for a star turn on the moon in 2024.
There's yet another spacesuit fashion statement due on Wednesday: Virgin Galactic and Under Armour say that's when they'll unveil the design for the flight suits that SpaceShipTwo's passengers will wear during suborbital spaceflights starting next year.
In January, we announced @UnderArmour as our Technical Spacewear Partner. After months of testing, this Wednesday we'll reveal the spacewear system our Future Astronauts will wear on their flight to space. Stay tuned. pic.twitter.com/rDw8wFST7L
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) October 14, 2019
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