NASA unveils new Space Suits for Moon Missions

Subject : Science and technology

Concept :

Nasa 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 latest in moon-wear was displayed at the Johnson Space Center in Houston during an event hosted for the media and students by Axiom Space, the Texas-based company contracted by Nasa to build suits for Artemis, successor to the Apollo moon program.

About the Suit

“Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit,” or AxEMU for short, the new suits are more streamlined and flexible than the old Apollo suits, with greater range of motion and variability in size and fit.
They are designed to fit a broad range of potential wearers, accommodating at least 90% of the US male and female population, Nasa said. They also will incorporate advances in life-support systems, pressure garments and avionics.
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.
The Axiom suits will be worn during the Artemis III mission, the program’s first moon landing, which is scheduled for 2025.

Artemis Mission

NASA’s Artemis mission is touted as the next generation of lunar exploration, and is named after the twin sister of Apollo from Greek mythology.
Artemis is also the goddess of the moon.
It is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration to the Moon and Mars.
With the Artemis programme, NASA aims to land humans on the moon by 2024, and it also plans to land the first woman and first person of colour on the moon.
NASA will establish an Artemis Base Camp on the surface and a gateway (the lunar outpost around the Moon) in lunar orbit to aid exploration by robots and astronauts.
The gateway is a critical component of NASA’s sustainable lunar operations and will serve as a multi-purpose outpost orbiting the moon.

Other space agencies are also involved in the Artemis programme.

Canadian Space Agency has committed to providing advanced robotics for the gateway,
The European Space Agency will provide the International Habitat and the ESPRIT module, which will deliver additional communications capabilities among other things.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency plans to contribute habitation components and logistics resupply.

Artemis I Mission

Artemis I is an uncrewed mission of NASA.
Named after the sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, it is NASA’s successor to the Apollo lunar missions from fifty years ago.
It will test the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion crew capsule.
The SLS is the largest new vertical launch system NASA has created since the Saturn V rockets used in the 1960s and 1970s.
Artemis I is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions to build a long-term human presence at the Moon for decades to come.
The primary goals for Artemis I are to demonstrate Orion’s systems in a spaceflight environment and ensure a safe re-entry, descent, splashdown, and recovery prior to the first flight with crew on Artemis II.
It is only a lunar Orbiter mission even though, unlike most Orbiter missions, it has a return-to-Earth target.
Significance
Artemis I is the first step into that new space age of achieving the promise of transporting humans to new worlds, of landing and living on other planets, or maybe meeting aliens.
The CubeSats it will carry are equipped with instruments meant for specific investigations and experiments, including searching for water in all forms and for hydrogen that can be utilised as a source of energy.
Biology experiments will be carried out, and the impact of deep space atmosphere on humans will be investigated through the effect on dummy ‘passengers’ on-board Orion.

Upcoming Artemis Missions

Artemis II:
It will take off in 2024.
Artemis II will have a crew aboard Orion and will be a test mission to confirm that all of the spacecraft’s systems will operate as designed when it has humans on board.
But the Artemis II launch will be similar to that of Artemis I. A crew of four astronauts will be aboard Orion as it and ICPS orbit the Earth twice before moving to the direction of the Moon.
Artemis III:
It is scheduled for 2025, and is expected to ferry astronauts to the moon for the first time since the apollo missions.