Today, NASA is introducing the new suit that the first astronauts to walk on the Moon in 50 years will wear, as part of the mission. Artemis 3, which will be released in 2025. For the first time ever, it will be a woman and a non-white person. Along with those in charge of the space agency, spokespeople for Axiom Space, the company that developed diving suits for $228 million, are taking part in the event.
The south pole of the moon is a strategic area that the great space powers, including the United States and China, are fighting to explore. Large amounts of frozen water are likely here in areas of permanent shade where the sun never reaches. The water will be essential to sustaining future colonies, making fuel and testing all the systems needed to realize NASA and Europe’s next big dream: flying astronauts to Mars.
Last summer, the US space agency announced 13 possible Antarctic sites, including the final landing site in 2025. Each of those designated areas is about 15 kilometers on each side, and within it, the landing site is located with an accuracy of 100 meters. All points are about six degrees from the South Pole, are high areas and therefore well lit, relatively close to dark craters where there may be abundant ice. China is considering some of these places to send a robotic mission there.
The new suits will be a true individual spacecraft, entered through a rear hatch, and include all the systems to keep explorers comfortable and safe from temperatures, radiation, and soft lunar regolith. The powerful headlights will allow astronauts to see around them despite the backlight as they traverse terrain and pick up up to 100kg of rock. NASA explains that this new generation of suits will allow for much more natural movement than their predecessors, including shoes with flexible soles in the style of hiking boots, which means we won’t see astronauts hopping around in comical jumps like half a century ago. The suit still contains a diaper, which is just in case the explorers can’t hold out during their six-hour lunar excursions.
The same suit unveiled today will be used with some modifications for spacewalks on the International Space Station, the future Lunar Gateway station and, in the distant future, for Mars exploration.
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