Axiom unveils its spacesuit design
Click for original image.
Axiom today unveiled its proposed spacesuit for NASA’s Moon missions, designed in partnership with the fashion company Prada.
The graphic to the left, cropped and reduced to post here, shows the suit. The letters refer to detailed descriptions contained in the full image.
The suit accommodates a wide range of crewmembers, including males and females from the first to 99th percentile (anthropomorphic sizing). It will withstand extreme temperatures at the lunar south pole and endure the coldest temperatures in the permanently shadowed regions for at least two hours. Astronauts will be able to perform spacewalks for at least eight hours.
The AxEMU incorporates multiple redundant systems and an onboard diagnostic system to ensure safety for crewmembers. The suit also uses a regenerable carbon dioxide scrubbing system and a robust cooling technology to remove heat from the system. It includes advanced coatings on the helmet and visor to enhance the astronauts’ view of their surroundings, as well as custom gloves made in-house featuring several advancements over the gloves used today. The spacesuit architecture includes life support systems, pressure garments, avionics and other innovative systems to meet exploration needs and expand scientific opportunities.
It appears the suit follows the design concept of the Russian Orlan suit, with access in and out using the backpack as the access hatch.
Axiom had won the $228 million contract to build this suit in 2022. In two years it is now testing the suit as it nears what it calls “the final development stage.” Compare that with NASA’s failed effort over fourteen years and a billion dollars to create its own suit, never getting much past powerpoint presentations.
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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.
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Click for original image.
Axiom today unveiled its proposed spacesuit for NASA’s Moon missions, designed in partnership with the fashion company Prada.
The graphic to the left, cropped and reduced to post here, shows the suit. The letters refer to detailed descriptions contained in the full image.
The suit accommodates a wide range of crewmembers, including males and females from the first to 99th percentile (anthropomorphic sizing). It will withstand extreme temperatures at the lunar south pole and endure the coldest temperatures in the permanently shadowed regions for at least two hours. Astronauts will be able to perform spacewalks for at least eight hours.
The AxEMU incorporates multiple redundant systems and an onboard diagnostic system to ensure safety for crewmembers. The suit also uses a regenerable carbon dioxide scrubbing system and a robust cooling technology to remove heat from the system. It includes advanced coatings on the helmet and visor to enhance the astronauts’ view of their surroundings, as well as custom gloves made in-house featuring several advancements over the gloves used today. The spacesuit architecture includes life support systems, pressure garments, avionics and other innovative systems to meet exploration needs and expand scientific opportunities.
It appears the suit follows the design concept of the Russian Orlan suit, with access in and out using the backpack as the access hatch.
Axiom had won the $228 million contract to build this suit in 2022. In two years it is now testing the suit as it nears what it calls “the final development stage.” Compare that with NASA’s failed effort over fourteen years and a billion dollars to create its own suit, never getting much past powerpoint presentations.
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.
I just hope Axiom will be granted FAA and EPA approvals!!
:-P
Nice. There is a bit of Robbie-the-Robot vibe…
You know, the way all these companies produce these awesome graphics, I really need to find and invest in the manufacture of all these power point slides….
(/s)
Did the National Fish and Wildlife Service approve? Can’t go anywhere without that…
Prada? I would have thought it would be Aeropostale.
I’m—too sexy for this suit
Not sure all the Prada interns are going to get job offers.
I am curious about some aspects of the nascent space-suit industry:
Are suits ‘universal’: can any given suit be used on any given spacecraft? I get the impression suits are space-craft or vehicle-builder specific.
Are there universal ship-suit interface standards?
Is a given suits software/firmware compatible with common spacecraft designs? Is the suit user-programmable, or does it need to be sent back to the factory? Maybe a field tech needs to come out and service it?
It would be nice for an operator to walk into Suits R Us and pick appropriate gear, but space suit standardization is going to have to become common, rapidly, if the Great Expansion is to continue.
‘Par seulement un clou, on perd un bon cheval.’ c 1507 Jean Molinet
I think space suits to be used on the Moon, should be dark red. White is harder to see. If somebody went missing, then they would be hard to find. But dark red would stick out. So if a person wearing a dark red spacesuit on the Moon, then they would be easier to find.
One more thing. The soles of each spacesuit should be different. Not one of them would be a like. They could have letters, and numbers. Just like license plates. By looking at a footprint on the Moon, you would know who it belong to. This could benefit law enforcement, and paramedics.
Did you mean “The graphic to the left”? It came out on the right on my PC.
Robert: And thus is born the Lunar counterfeit boot industry!
LOL. Not that you’re wrong, Patrick, but it’s still funny. I like both of Robert’s ideas.
It doesn’t seem as if these will work for EVAs – that giant backpack and rear entry would make them impossible to put on in Dragon. Starship is big, they might work there.
Blair’s point is also a good one. I think we’ll need multiple sorts of space suits for different purposes. That makes outfitting workers both easier and harder. Easier because the guy who works on the moon has a space suit designed for that while the guy who works on a space station has a suit designed for that. Harder because if one guy does both he needs two very expensive suits.
I’m still waiting for the SciFi suit that one just pulls on in the airlock and goes outside. I understand the issues with that, but it’s going to need to happen, eventually. Spending hours dealing with pressures and gas mixtures just isn’t long-term practical. We also need the “beach ball” emergency suit that anyone can just jump into if there is a breach. One may not be able to do anything except call for help from within one, but better trapped in a bubble facing death than being already dead.