NASA, together with Axiom Space, has presented the first prototype of what will be the astronauts’ suit for the Artemis III mission. It is a modular design, prepared to adapt to the physical characteristics of different astronauts. This mission is expected to land the first woman on the Moon, with 2025 as the key launch date.
A suit with more possibilities. Its name is AxEMU (Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit), and it is the first prototype of the new spacesuit that will debut on the Artemis III mission. According to Axiom, it is a suit that will provide greater flexibility to adapt to the physical characteristics of astronauts, will have greater protection against the lunar environment and will allow better exploration.
No it won’t be black. Although Axom and NASA have shown the prototype in black, the final design will be made with a white outer layer, like the rest of the suits. The white color allows heat to be reflected when the temperatures are extreme, but to hide those elements of the suit that are under patent, they have decided to hide them both with the color black and with some orange and blue decorations.
“NASA’s partnership with Axiom is critical to getting astronauts to land on the Moon and continuing America’s leadership in space. Building on NASA’s years of research and experience, Axiom’s next-generation spacesuits not only will enable the first woman to walk on the Moon, but will also open up opportunities for more people to explore and conduct science on the Moon than ever before,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
No more huge and bulky suits. The new Artemis costumes will say goodbye to the classic volumes that we are used to seeing in the missions. The new suits will be tighter, lighter and, according to NASA; accommodate “at least 90% of the male and female population.” They will also arrive with advances in life support systems, pressure systems and so on. No further technical details have been disclosed.
The importance of Artemis III. This mission, as its name suggests, will be the third within the Artemis missions. They seek to explore the lunar surface in order to establish “a sustainable presence” on it and lay the foundations for a future lunar economy. It is a colossal space infrastructure deployment project, and for its various missions new robotic landers, scientific instruments, resource extraction and more will be experimented with.
Artemis III, if all goes according to plan, will have his release in 2025. The rocket that will carry the crew will be the SLS Block 1B and it will be the first mission in which a woman and a black person will set foot on the lunar soil.
Imagen | Axiom Space
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