Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/HOUSTON: NASA has decided to replace the puffy white suits worn by Neil Armstrong and his fellow Apollo astronauts half a century ago with sleeker and more flexible spacesuits that astronauts will wear on the next mission to the Moon.
The US space agency on Wednesday unveiled the first prototype for a newly-designed next-generation spacesuit that would be worn by the first astronauts expected to go back to the Moon’s surface in the next few years.
The next generation spacesuit. @NASA selected @Axiom_Space to develop the suits for the Artemis III mission to the lunar surface. The first prototype was revealed today during an event at Space Center Houston in Texas. https://t.co/qW96kLYIxl pic.twitter.com/icFDxv60IU
— NASA's Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) March 15, 2023
The future Moon-attire was displayed at the Johnson Space Center in Houston during an event hosted for the media and students by Axiom Space. NASA had awarded the Texas-based company a $228.5 million contract to build suits for Artemis – the successor to the Apollo Moon programme.
The programme aims to return humans to the Moon in late 2025 for the first time after the historic Apollo missions ended in 1972, an initial step towards the voyage to Mars.
AxEMU: the next-generation Moon-wear
The spacesuits, branded by Axiom as the “Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit” or AxEMU for short, are better streamlined and flexible than the old Apollo suits, while also having a greater range of motion and variability in size and fit.
The pressurised garment has multiple protective layers with a backpack containing life-support systems as well as lights and a high-definition video camera placed on top of the bubble-shaped helmet.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson said the next generation spacesuits will not only enable the first woman to walk on the Moon but will also pave way for more people to explore and conduct science on the Moon than ever before.
