It will be able to support astronauts for longer

Jan 25, 2010 08:49 GMT  ·  By

One of the main obstacles that prevent astronauts from exploring their surroundings efficiently, and also from conducting highly precise work is the fact that their spacesuits are terribly cumbersome. They lack the mobility and flexibility that main operations conducted in outer space, or on the surface of another planet, would require. Now, the American space agency announces that it has begun work on a new series of high-tech spacesuits that will be outfitted with a number of new functions and capabilities. The main focus of the new design is to allow astronauts to move more freely, decrease weight, increase autonomy, and boost the communication capacities.

Spacesuits are absolutely essential for space exploration, regardless of whether we're talking about a spacewalk on the International Space Station (ISS), or establishing a permanent human outpost on the surface of the Moon or Mars. They need to be robust, impervious to coldness and as many radiations as possible, while also providing the people wearing them with sufficient battery life, autonomy and communication capabilities. “The current suits just cannot do everything we need them to do. We have a completely new design, something that has never been done before,” Terry Hill, who is an expert at the NASA Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas, says. He is also the project manager for the Project Constellation space suit engineering department, Technology Review reports.

The new approach looks to create a suit that will be highly adjustable, in the sense that its components will be swappable. That is to say, several types of arms, legs and helmets could be added to various types of torsos. At this point, there are several types of spacesuits being employed at NASA, all of which have their own use. The goal of the new design is to incorporate all those into a single one, without sacrificing any functionality. “It's one reconfigurable suit that can do the job of three specialized suits,” Hill explains. The new suits are being developed by the Houston-based Oceaneering International, under a $500-million, 6.5-year contract with the American space agency.

“When we went to the Moon the first time, we were just trying to get there. Now astronauts need to be able to explore the surface, harvest resources, and do science,” the Head of the Constellation space suits project, Daniel Barry, adds. He is also the vice president and director of research and development at the Worchester, MA-based David Clark Company, which has partnered with Oceaneering International for developing the new spacesuits. “The bottom line is that if we are going to do manned missions, we need a new space suit. We have made the suit modular for that reason; if they decide to skip the moon and go to Mars, it does not change our architecture,” Hill concludes.