Axiom chosen by NASA to build first Artemis moonsuits
Capitalism in space: NASA today awarded Axiom the contract to build the moonsuits the astronauts will use on the first lunar landing of its Artemis program, dubbed Artemis-3.
After reviewing proposals from its two eligible spacesuit vendors, NASA selected Axiom Space for the task order, which has a base value of $228.5 million. A future task order will be competed for recurring spacesuit services to support subsequent Artemis missions.
The contract award continues NASA shift from its failed spacesuit effort — taking fourteen years and a billion dollars to produce nothing — to hiring the private sector to do it.
Previously NASA had awarded contracts to both Axiom and Collins Aerospace to build spacesuits, either for spacewalks or on the Moon. Today’s award is specifically for moonsuits for that first lunar mission.
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In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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Capitalism in space: NASA today awarded Axiom the contract to build the moonsuits the astronauts will use on the first lunar landing of its Artemis program, dubbed Artemis-3.
After reviewing proposals from its two eligible spacesuit vendors, NASA selected Axiom Space for the task order, which has a base value of $228.5 million. A future task order will be competed for recurring spacesuit services to support subsequent Artemis missions.
The contract award continues NASA shift from its failed spacesuit effort — taking fourteen years and a billion dollars to produce nothing — to hiring the private sector to do it.
Previously NASA had awarded contracts to both Axiom and Collins Aerospace to build spacesuits, either for spacewalks or on the Moon. Today’s award is specifically for moonsuits for that first lunar mission.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
So happy to see Congress not part of the ‘process’.
Have we seen this video yet? Why it is so difficult to design the next Moon suit when the Apollo suits worked so well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k9wIsKKgqo (15 minutes)
Edward, the supply chain that made it possible to produce those Apollo suits just doesn’t exist any more. That was when girls who would later go to MIT were making their own prom dress from raw cloth and thread and the boys they would later meet at MIT were rebuilding car engines so they could have a car. Nobody does that quality of handiwork even in the so called luxury goods markets. So it costs millions just for the training and the tooling.
The story behind those Apollo suits and the involvement of Platex Bra company is quite interesting.
George C:
You remind me why I so much appreciate having been born so long ago.
The future should learn from the past.
AI in the Simulation can do that for us, if there’s enough demand.
I’m sorta confused on the timeline, I thought “they” were going to land on the Moon in 2025?
George C-
Thanks for that Playtex factoid– if I’m recalling correctly there’s a lengthy period NASA film on the whole suit development thing.’
Edward-
-haven’t watched your linked-video yet, so excuse if redundant.
Q: Apollo era–>did they use the same suit design for spacewalks & on the surface of the Moon?
excellent period piece:
Science Reporter
“Suited For Space”
NASA / MIT
https://archive.org/details/SuitedforSpace
Vocational schools need a come-back.
While I was laid off in 2008 I coached a local high school robotics team – the debut year for the team. Our rural high school did not have a shop, so there was no facility help and I provided the tools. With no shop teacher the faculty contact/help was a Spanish teacher. Her mechanical experience was that she knew her father-in-law who was a contractor, The physics and math teachers had outside gigs and so could not help after school.
What I came to realize quickly was that almost none of the students had any mechanical aptitude at all. This included, for some, not understanding how to properly mount a bit into a drill chuck. Therefore the concept of mounting a motor, connecting the shaft of the motor to a wheel and dealing with the degrees of freedom, etc was a a black art.
I did have one very good student, the son of a remodeling contractor. He had obviously been put to work with by his father over some appreciable time.
We muddled through the competition and I taught as much as I could to the members of the team that wanted to learn. We did rather well in the competition considering that some schools had CNC machines to make gears on their robots.
I also learned a bit from this experience:
Actual hands-on work is indispensable. There is no substitute for doing – not talking about something, but doing. Only after you have “done it” can you talk about how it was done or how to improve it.
Failure and knowing how and what failed is also indispensable.
Getting someone to learn how to analyze is difficult. It is all but impossible without some physical experience.
Getting someone to “see how something operates” is a great achievement.
wayne asked: “Apollo era–>did they use the same suit design for spacewalks & on the surface of the Moon?”
My recollection is that they were largely the same, although there were a few differences for the command module pilot, who only had to go out to the service module to retrieve a film canister. One of the differences was in the sun visor, which the CMP did not have, but (as I recall) on Apollo 16, Commander John Young had CMP Ken Mattingly wear his visor to reduce the effect of the sun on Mattingly’s eyes. This shows that there was quite a bit of interchangeability between suits, so much of the designs would have to be similar, if not the same. I suspect also that the CMP had different boots, too.
Wikipedia lists a couple of other differences:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo/Skylab_spacesuit#Intravehicular_(CMP)_Pressure_Suit_Assembly