![]() ![]() The 圎MU helmets offer a wider range of vision than the Apollo helmets, with onboard lights to help illuminate dark places. It contaminates inner layers of the garment and any parts that are supposed to detach, and causes general wear and tear to the exterior of the suits. As a result, the lunar soil is very coarse and jagged, and it sticks to everything (yeah, I know I sound like Anakin Skywalker). The moon’s surface hasn’t been exposed to the kind of weathering Earth’s geology has faced. Dust mitigationĪ huge lesson learned from Apollo was that lunar dust is terrible. This is going to make it much easier for astronauts to conduct worthwhile science on the ground, like examining geological samples or setting up complex instruments. The 圎MU is supposed to encourage normal walking as opposed to hopping, and make it easier to kneel down stably in one motion to work close to the ground-which wasn’t much of an option for Apollo astronauts. Trying to grab objects on the ground required an awkward lunge. So they mostly shuffled when they got more comfortable and more adventurous, they could manage a more loping gait to move faster. With such limited hip mobility, striding just wasn’t feasible. They quickly found it difficult to walk around normally in microgravity, and they were also very careful to avoid any dangers. Apollo astronauts weren’t spending a whole lot of time on the surface of the moon during their missions, and the time they did spend was largely to just get to know this new environment. The hip mobility bearings in particular are a big deal for moonwalking (no, not that kind of moonwalking). It should allow them to get ready more quickly in the suit when it's necessary, but also to lift materials or kneel down to study things when the situation calls for it. The suits also have a variable pressure system to give astronauts more flexibility when they need it. “All of these together allow for very low-torque, low-energy mobility and motion,” says Rhodes. There are finally bearings at the waist, hips, thighs, and ankles, creating much greater mobility in the lower body. The ones at the shoulders should allow astronauts to reach outward and lift objects more easily while reducing risk of injury to the upper body. The 圎MU has bearings that are lighter and hew closer to the joints than ones used for previous EMUs. It needed to be light enough to accommodate all these different situations, and too many bearings could have weighed it down. The old Apollo suits used bearings only in the arms, because it was basically a multipurpose suit (used for both launch and entry, as well as lunar exploration). The solution is to use bearings, since they rotate around a single point and ensure a constant amount of volume. The goal is to limit the amount of volume in the suit, because the more volume there is, the harder astronauts must to work to bend their joints, and that can quickly grow exhausting. “When you’re designing a spacesuit, you want it to move freely and efficiently, with the least amount of effort possible, so we can be as near to shirtsleeve mobility as possible,” says Rhodes. New spacesuits will be critical to ensuring that the experience is safe and comfortable. The goal behind Artemis is to have people living and working on the moon. But it also incorporates what we’ve learned through the EMUs used in orbit during the space shuttle and ISS eras of human exploration, as well as the hard lessons from Apollo. It is ostensibly the successor to the spacesuits worn by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and other Apollo astronauts when they set foot on the lunar surface half a century ago. The most interesting work, however, has to do with NASA’s next-generation spacesuit for astronauts going to the moon-the eXploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or 圎MU. ![]() Suits that are worn during takeoff and reentry are designed to protect astronauts from fire, and they plug into seat umbilicals that carry oxygen and cool air in case the cabin depressurizes for some reason. Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, the astronauts who went up on the Crew Dragon to the ISS in May, remarked that they were extremely comfortable and easy to get on and off. In place of the baggy orange Advanced Crew Escape Suit (affectionately nicknamed the "pumpkin suit”) that space shuttle crews used to wear when launching into orbit, SpaceX and Boeing have designed something that is much more form-fitting and half the mass. The emergence of new private vehicles like SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s Starliner means NASA astronauts going to the International Space Station are wearing new spacesuits that are extremely sleek and chic. Fortunately, though, the flurry of new activity in space has meant we’re seeing more innovation in spacesuit design and performance than ever before.
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