NASA unveils sleeker spacesuits for future US mission to Moon - Al Jazeera English

The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Wednesday unveiled the first prototype for a newly-designed next-generation spacesuit, specially tailored and accessorised for the first astronauts expected to venture back to the Moon’s surface in the next few years.

The Artemis programme aims to return humans to the Moon in late 2025 for the first time since the historic Apollo missions ended in 1972, an initial step towards an eventual voyage to Mars.

The pressurised garment has multiple protective layers, a backpack with life-support systems as well as lights and a high-definition video camera mounted on top of the bubble-shaped helmet.

“Inside of this box are all the parts and the components to keep you alive,” Russell Ralston, deputy program manager for extravehicular activity at Axiom Space, said of the suit’s “portable life support system”.

Designed to be worn for up to eight hours at a time, the new suits will fit a broad range of potential wearers, accommodating at least 90 percent of the US male and female population, NASA said.

The company said the suits to be worn on the lunar south pole by astronauts will be white because that is the best colour to reflect the harsh sunlight on the Moon’s surface and protect the wearer from extreme heat.