Nasa unveils prototype spacesuits
WASHINGTON: At Nasa headquarters on Tuesday, officials introduced two prototype spacesuits to be used during upcoming moon missions.
The new spacesuits will offer improvements over existing models for the men and women expected to wear them, including greater comfort and movement. And as Nasa races to meet the Trump administration’s 2024 target for returning to the moon, the agency needs to make sure that astronauts have the technological capability to safely set foot on the surface, which no human has done since 1972.
“We’ve been working for a long time to build spacesuits that will do the job on the moon and going on to Mars,” said Amy Ross, a spacesuit engineer at Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston.
One spacesuit, with a colourful bright red, white and blue pattern, is called the exploration extravehicular mobility unit. That is what astronauts will wear as they explore the moon’s surface. The moon suit, demonstrated by Kristine Davis, who works in the agency’s spacesuit engineering efforts, provides additional mobility for an astronaut, making it easier to walk, bend and twist.
Astronauts will be able to reach across the suit and lift their arms above their heads. “Which they can’t do today and couldn’t do during the Apollo program,” Ms Ross said.
“You remember Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, they bunny hopped on the surface of the moon,” Jim Bridenstine, Nasa’s administrator, said. “Well now we’re actually going to be able to walk on the surface of the moon, which is very different than our suits in the past.”
The suits are designed to work in temperatures ranging from 250 degrees Fahrenheit (121 degrees Celsius) down to minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit and potentially even colder places around the lunar South Pole, where Nasa is aiming to send astronauts.
The other suit, in a bright orange fabric, is to be worn by astronauts during launch and reentry back to Earth while they are sitting inside the Orion crew capsule, the spacecraft for deepspace travel that Nasa has been working on for 15 years. The suit provides protection in case of an accident, and is designed to keep the astronauts alive for six days.