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from the can-you-walk-like-an-Egyptian? dept.
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NASA revealed new spacesuits, specifically created for the Artemis generation of missions, which aim to get the first American woman and the next American man to the surface of the Moon by 2024. The new design’s toppling feature is greater mobility and flexibility, in basically every respect. NASA unveiled both a full suit designed for use in extra-vehicular activities on the surface of the Moon, and a flight suit for use while in transit to lunar orbit.
Guided by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, the agency first demonstrated the suit that astronauts will use on the surface of the Moon (and, with modifications, eventually on Mars). It’s called the “xEMU” variant, and it looks a lot like what you might think of when you imagine “space suit” in your mind. But it’s quite different in many respects from what astronauts used to visit the surface of the Moon during the Apollo program.
It allows you to actually moonwalk, for instance: The original suit used for Moon-based activities actually only offered enough range of motion for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to be able to essentially “bunny hop” on the lunar surface, in Bridenstine’s own words. This new design allows them to move around much more dynamically, including actually walking, and offers plenty of range of motion for their arms. Combined with new gloves that actually allow astronauts to freely move their fingers, they can do things like pick up rocks off the lunar surface with relative ease.
The new spacesuit design is also designed to work with virtually everyone who could want to become an astronaut, with inclusive sizing that can accommodate anyone from the “first percentile female to the 99th percentile male,” according to Kristine Davis, an Advanced Space Suit Engineer at NASA and the person who demonstrated the xEMU variant of the suit onstage at the event on Tuesday.
“We want every person who dreams of going into space to be able to say to themselves, that yes, they have that opportunity,” Bridenstine added, regarding the suit’s inclusive design.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 17 2019, @12:52PM (2 children)
NASA's video showing off the spacesuit did not appear to have it inflated?
A space suite does not get interesting until you are Bib the Michelin man.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 17 2019, @01:10PM
Looks like they don't need a working suit anytime soon:
A House budget committee has likely killed the 2024 Moon landing [arstechnica.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 17 2019, @01:55PM
That was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the video. Looks like equal pressure on the inside and outside so of course someone can fairly easily bend over and pick something up off the ground...