Engineering & Design

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The United States recently celebrated an aerospace milestone, when the first all-female spacewalk took place when astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir spent more than seven hours outside of the International Space Station where they replaced a faulty battery charging unit.

But lest we forget, the milestone of the first all-female walk was originally scheduled more than six months ago, and its cancellation was much-publicized when the reason was revealed: both astronauts needed a medium-sized space suit and only one was available. The last-minute snafu resulted in one female astronaut replaced by a male colleague.

With the spotlight on the critical importance of the spacesuit, what better time than now for NASA to unveil the prototype for the next generation of its spacesuits. And there are two things that the agency is prioritizing with the first new suit in 40 years: It goes without saying that safety is the first, but secondly, it’s all about mobility. And the garment that’s known for its bulkiness is getting some upgrades.

Two NASA engineers recently demoed that suits, which are designed to be used within the Artemis program – whose goal is to land the first woman and the next man on the moon.

One suit dubbed the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (or xEMU) will be worn on the moon, and the other – the Orion Crew Survival System – is a pressure suit for astronauts to wear when they launch from Earth and return. Upper torso mobility drove the design of the xEMU and a ring at the midsection will make it less restrictive. Designers demonstrated ways the astronauts will be able to bend, squat, and more easily walk in the new garments.

And another great feature? The new xEMU space suits are designed to be one-size-fits-all for any gender.

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