The roughly 100-pound suit, a fraction of the 250- to 350-pound version that will actually go to the moon, is more flexible than what Apollo astronauts wore, when they basically fell over to pick up rocks, and more comfortable than the 40-year-old spacesuit technology that isAnd in a departure from astronauts’ previous attire, these spacesuits are owned by a private companyHouston-based Axiom Space. NASA helped with their design, but the agency ultimately wants to be one of many customers.
But these future moonwalking suits will look a little different. The suit displayed Wednesday by Stein, Axiom’s chief engineer for spacewalk systems, were black and orange. The suits going into space will be white to reflect sunlight and help regulate the temperature for astronauts. The suit going to the moon will actually have an exterior insulation layer to keep astronauts at a comfortable temperature and to protect them from cuts or punctures.shuttle-era suits NASA is currently using for spacewalks. For instance, astronauts will get in the Axiom spacesuit through a hatch in the back, which should be easier than the current method of wiggling into the suit’s hard upper torso from below, said Mark Greeley, Axiom’s program manager for spacewalk systems.
But first, the spacesuit must be tested on Earth. NASA will put astronauts in the suit this summer and use a system of cables and pulleys to “offload gravity.” This will help simulate the moon, which has a gravity that’s 1/6 of the Earth, said NASA astronaut Kate Rubins.the moon. Later tests of the spacesuit’s life support system could be done in a vacuum chamber or similar environment.