Everything You Need to Know About NASA's New Spacesuits
In a press conference yesterday, NASA unveiled two prototype spacesuits that astronauts will wear to the moon in 2024, and eventually, to Mars.
The suits have several new features that allow astronauts extended mobility, have interchangeable parts that can be swapped out as the environment changes, and include enough sizes for a wide range of body types.
NASA says it will begin testing the suits on the International Space Station in early 2023.
In essence, a spacesuit is a small rocketship. Everything an astronaut needs to survive has to be contained within their suit. So as NASA prepares for a return trip to the moon, the agency is working to develop a new suit that’s up to the task.
NASA's current semi-rigid Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) suits—first introduced almost 40 years ago—are bulky and difficult to move around in. They were designed for floating spacewalks, not treks across a rocky surface.
It’s time for a long-awaited upgrade.
At a press conference yesterday, NASA revealed two prototype spacesuits: the Orion Crew Survival System suit, which astronauts will wear during launch and reentry, and the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) suits that the astronauts will don as they explore the lunar surface.
The Artemis Program, NASA’s long-awaited return to the moon, is scheduled to take the first woman and the next man to the moon in 2024. The crew will launch in the agency’s Orion capsule and will explore the moon’s South Pole in search of water, ice, and other lunar resources.
Here's everything you need to know about NASA's new spacesuits.
The xEMU Is a New Suit for Exploring the Moon
One of the most important aspects of the new xEMU suit will be its adaptability for use in a wide variety of environments. NASA wants a suit that astronauts can operate during spacewalks, on the lunar surface, and eventually on Mars.
The design of the xEMU gives astronauts the ability to swap out certain parts in order to match their specific needs. For example, astronauts visiting Mars would be able to adjust components to fit the red planet’s atmosphere and seasonal temperature changes. The suits can hold up in temperatures ranging from minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
On the moon, astronauts have to contend with a number of environmental challenges. One of the biggest concerns is dust. “My mentor worked on the Apollo suit, and two things I learned are: Zippers are bad, and cables are bad,” NASA spacesuit engineer Amy Ross said in the press conference.
The new suits will have fewer seams, no zippers or cables, and seals to protect the suits’ multiple bearings. A new and improved visor will protect the helmets from nicks and scrapes and can be swapped out so that the entire helmet doesn’t have to be repaired.
There will also be a wider range of sizes available—something NASA has caught flak for earlier this year. NASA had to cancel the first all-female spacewalk in March because the agency didn’t have enough medium-sized suits to fit both of the women aboard the ISS. (NASA has rescheduled the all-female spacewalk for later this week; astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch will fix a faulty power controller that malfunctioned.)
Astronauts will now be able to lift their arms above their heads and reach back across their bodies, thanks to advancements in shoulder placement and new bearings that allow rotation at every joint.
“If your arms are too far away, they aren't able to reach across the body,” Ryan Kobrick, an aerospace engineer at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, tells Popular Mechanics. “They pop out to the side like little fish fins.” New joint bearings will also allow astronauts to bend and rotate at the hips and bend their knees.
"Overall, they're thinking about the science of the field tests that need to be done by the astronauts—the working movement—and how best to create a suit that can handle the dynamic nature of those movements," says Kobrick.
This suit is designed to operate at around 8.2 pounds per square inch of pressure. As Ross noted, basketball, by comparison, is filled to about six or seven pounds per square inch of pressure. If astronauts need more flexibility, they can reduce the pressure in the suit down to 4.3 psi.
Critically, Ross said, the team has worked to ensure that astronauts can don and doff (NASA’s slang for “take off”) the suit at two different points in case they get stuck. “It’s an additional functionality that the current suit doesn’t have,” she said. In addition to the getting in and out of the suit through the waist, there's a rear hatch that the astronauts can use.
There was one thing that caught Kobrick off guard.
"I was not expecting the colors," he says. "Before, they were all white to help with reflecting radiation from the sun and help with heat dissipation."
This new color scheme could be helpful if astronauts explore cooler parts of the lunar surface, such as the shaded slopes of craters, where temperatures drop significantly.
"At least they don't have to plant a flag now, because they'll be wearing it," Kobrick says.
The Orion Crew Survival System Suit Keeps Astronauts Safe During Flight
“This is a suit that gets us there and gets us home safely,” NASA spacesuit engineer Dustin Gohmert said at the press conference. The bright-orange Orion Crew Survival System suit is designed to be pressurized during launch and re-entry and depressurized while traveling through deep space. In some cases, the crew may pressurize the suit to help deter cases of decompression sickness.
Astronauts can take refuge in these suits in the event of an emergency if, say, the Orion capsule were to become depressurized. The suit is designed to remain pressurized at around 8 psi for several days and almost a week at 4.3 psi, and it has most of the same life supporting functions as the xEMU.
“We’ve given the crew up to six days to survive in this suit,” said Gohmert. “It’s no small feat to be able to live in a volume that’s a couple inches bigger than your body for six whole days.”
The Orion Crew Survival System suit also has a total of five built-in safety handholds: two on the chest, two on the leg, and one across the back between the shoulder blades “to allow for rescue and/or hoisting of the crew,” said Gohmert.
To build a better flight suit, the design team implemented lessons learned from the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia accident.
“The first fatal injury that the crew suffered during that accident was hypoxia and hyperbaric injuries,” said Gohmert. "We asked ourselves, 'Well, why would that have happened? They were wearing a spacesuit." Now, the suits’ life support systems are completely autonomous from the ship’s, a closed loop that won’t be affected if the cabin is compromised.
The team also aimed to better prevent blunt force injuries that could occur during an accident. The suit is “tailored to the human body and also tailored to the seat,” Gohmert said. The seats in the Orion capsule are similar to the seats found in a race car, with holsters on the shoulders, hips, and feet. “Everything is tied down” to prevent the astronauts from being jostled around violently, he said.
More Spacesuit Takeaways
The suits go through extensive testing before they can be sent into space, including certification testing and lower-level testing, where the suit’s many smaller parts are tested independently. The team will test the suits in a number of analog environments, too.
"We just test the suits to the absolute limits," EVA manager Chris Hansen said in a teleconference Tuesday. Ross noted this phase of testing will begin next summer.
Testing the suits on Earth is important, but testing the suits in space will be critical. NASA aims to have astronauts aboard the International Space Station test the new suits in 2023, just a year before their planned lunar debut. It’s a tight turnaround.
“We're trying to get the suit on board the Space Station as fast as we can to get data before we go down to the lunar surface, but it's not a requirement,” Hansen said. The team is comfortable that it has built a suit that can hold up to the challenges it may face on the lunar surface and beyond.
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