NASA is testing the first of its new moonwalking spacesuits

[Admin]

What will astronauts wear on the big day when they step foot on the moon as the first humans to do so in more than 50 years?

NASA is testing the first of its new moonwalking spacesuits : Read more

 

[dark]

Well, I was really hoping that NASA would have come up with something that was not so bulky and more maneuverable for the Astronauts. This seems much bigger then the past suits and harder to move around in.

 

[AustinSTX]

I was also expecting maneuverability to be visible, especially with a headline that called them "moonwalking space suits"....they should be able to dance!

 

[dark]

Yea, to me watching them, was like watching the Charlies Angles movie where they were in those fat sumo suits. That's how they looked moving around. Not a good look if you ask me.

 

[JPL-ACE]

The suits are to keep them alive and healthy, not win beauty contests. The vacuum of space will kill them in seconds. The radiation in days or even hours. They are using older tech because this time, there is no Apollo gold plated budget.

 

[Geomartian]

The original “gold plated” Apollo suits were experiencing serious issues with lunar grit after only three surface excursions. Wrist/glove connectors were starting to jam. The material of the suits was starting to get punctured by the jagged welding slag that passes for dirt on the lunar surface.

Another problem with manned space suits is that those space suits will enter your living spaces. Lunar slag and dust are extremely irritating and potentially toxic. You want to keep that stuff out of your living spaces. This is not like annoying beach or desert sand which has been rounded by abrasion and weathering. This is jagged, with molecular thin edges, which can slice through cellular walls like your lungs or eye surfaces on contact.

As long as these suits stay on tumbled regolith paths (smoothed and rounded grit) they might be OK.

You can adapt remotely tele-operated robots to the moon’s surface using flexures and other technology which are not as susceptible to grit. Anything with a moving surface to surface contact should be avoided in an environment like the Moon. Some of the lunar material contains fractured zircon and nano-diamonds which will scour and gouge any metal no matter how hard.

Dedicated telepresence robots would be a much better investment than these suits. The robots could be cycled through cleaning stations or glove boxes when they need maintenance or cleaning. This will keep the grit out of the living spaces.