Whether it’s the silver-clad explorers from the Mercury missions, or the Apollo-era adventurers in their gleaming white and gold suits, astronauts have the greatest tailors this side of Starfleet. But even classics need updating. Amy Ross leads NASA’s efforts in advanced pressure garment technology and is spearheading the first total redesign of astronaut outerwear in nearly 30 years.

Her latest creation, called the Z-2 Spacesuit, is a $4.4 million dollar planetary exploration suit designed for walking the surface of the Moon, Mars, and any other landforms a spacecraft can land on. Like the Extravehicular Mobility Units seen in movies like Gravity, the Z-2 is a pressurized design made from layers of high-tech materials that are inflated until they’re as taut as a basketball, but customized for missions on terra firma.

Developing planetary suits presents challenges very different than those encountered when designing gear meant for use on shuttles, the space station, and space walks. One of the biggest difficulties is the lack of direction on where we’ll be heading next. A return to the moon? A manned mission to Mars? Each destination will lead to vastly different design criteria.

“It all depends on where you’re going and what you’re doing,” says Ross. “Each spacesuit is tailored for the mission, what tasks the astronauts will be performing, where they’ll be doing them, the planetary microgravity, how hot or cold it is, how many times they’ll be doing it, and so on.” In order to make progress in what could be a paralyzing array of choices, Ross uses Mars as a baseline, noting that gear suited for the red planet can be reconfigured to serve outliers relatively easily.

There’s no single feature that stands out on the Z-2, but rather a collection of small innovations that collectively enable the exploration of bold new worlds. Bearings at key joints give astronauts a surprising amount of flexibility. “If you need to crawl under a rover to change its oil, you should be able to,” says Ross. “If we ask you need to jog up Olympus Mons, you should be able to do that in the same suit.”

The most conspicuous innovation is a rigid shell on the back, called the “Suitplate Interface Port.” The port allows astronauts to enter and exit the outfit by docking with a vehicle, forgoing a trip through an airlock, and pulls double duty as the attachment point for the Portable Life Support System—the backpack that provides oxygen, thermal regulation, and other functions.

Ross says the biggest difference between the Z-series and earlier suit design has less to do with new design features, and is more dependent on material and manufacturing advances. She credits 3-D scanning and printing as huge developments allowing the team to make prototypes faster, but also to virtualize some of the R&D. The team uses the same real-time motion-tracking tools that are used for videogames and movies to simulate movement and help reveal where areas of discomfort are likely to arise. “We need to understand the interface between the interface between human and suit,” she says.

What’s the Countdown to Flight?

In space, no one can hear you scream if you tear your inseam, so testing and reliability is of the utmost importance. A ride in a parabolic aircraft NASA has nicknamed the “Vomit Comet” simulates the suit’s mobility in a zero-gravity environment. A 6.2 million gallon pool called the “Neutral Buoyancy Lab” helps astronauts get a feel for what a moon walk would feel like. And a hike through a simulated alien world at NASA’s “Rockyard” facility provides test subjects the ability to comment on fit and point out parts of the suit that are prone to ride up.

The ultimate test is subjecting the suit, and it’s wearer, to a vacuum chamber. This is an experiment that is wildly dangerous, but is a critical step before testing designs in space. Ross tells the story of a vacuum test gone awry. “An astronaut’s umbilical became disconnected from the chamber and the last thing he remembered before passing out a few seconds later was the saliva on his tongue boiling.” She says of an astronaut who, thankfully, survived. “If you screw up when you’re doing a vacuum chamber test people die.”

The Z-2 prototype is expected to be delivered and tested in November of 2014, but it could take another decade to finalize the suit. As it gets closer to launch, more details need to be dialed in and heavy-duty testing is required. For all of the work done on the Z-2 there design requirements related to durability have barely been addressed.

To give a sense of scale, Ross worked on a new pair of gloves for an existing suit and the process of getting them cleared for takeoff took over two and a half years. The Z-2’s gloves are a key component of the design and come in 62 configurations, which will reduce the hand stress of the astronauts, but could greatly increase the amount of testing required. Additionally, NASA’s shuttles are grounded and there are no plans to replace them, so all this work could end up grounded indefinitely.

Where are the Sleek, Skintight Suits We’ve Been Promised?

As cool as the Z-2 is, why not shoot for something sleeker and more form-fitting like the mechanical counter pressure (MCP) suits being developed by MIT’s Dava Newman? NASA’s engineers are big fans of the concept, but point out that for these kinds of suits to work, breakthroughs in material science will be required, as well as careful tailoring. Current concepts leave the crotch and armpits dangerously unsupported and pressurizing a standalone helmet creates tricky design challenges. This isn’t to say it’s not possible, but is likely decades from feasibility.

Bodysuits inspired by Star Trek might be a ways off, but Ross’ team has tried to add a little visual flair to the project by developing three versions of the Z-2’s outer layer, each laced with electroluminescent wire and decorated with futuristic-looking patterns. The designs were conceived of by students at Philadelphia University and an engineer on Ross’ team, Shane McFarland, created a website to crowdsource a decision about which look should be manufactured. Over 200,000 votes were cast and a decision is due at the end of April, yet no matter which design is selected, the vote serves as an encouraging sign about the public’s interest in NASA’s mandate.

Ross and company are excited about the positive response to the suit and ultimately want to use it as a tool to reignite widespread passion for space exploration as much as a vessel for individual astronauts. “More than one person has told me ‘I thought NASA was dead,'” says Ross. “NASA is not dead and we think spacesuits are exciting.”