![]() The 圎MU has bearings that are lighter and hew closer to the joints than ones used for previous EMUs. ![]() It needed to be light enough to accommodate all these different situations, and too many bearings could have weighed it down. The old Apollo suits used bearings only in the arms, because it was basically a multipurpose suit (used for both launch and entry, as well as lunar exploration). The solution is to use bearings, since they rotate around a single point and ensure a constant amount of volume. The goal is to limit the amount of volume in the suit, because the more volume there is, the harder astronauts must to work to bend their joints, and that can quickly grow exhausting. “When you’re designing a spacesuit, you want it to move freely and efficiently, with the least amount of effort possible, so we can be as near to shirtsleeve mobility as possible,” says Rhodes. New spacesuits will be critical to ensuring that the experience is safe and comfortable. The goal behind Artemis is to have people living and working on the moon. But it also incorporates what we’ve learned through the EMUs used in orbit during the space shuttle and ISS eras of human exploration, as well as the hard lessons from Apollo. It is ostensibly the successor to the spacesuits worn by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and other Apollo astronauts when they set foot on the lunar surface half a century ago. The most interesting work, however, has to do with NASA’s next-generation spacesuit for astronauts going to the moon-the eXploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or 圎MU. Suits that are worn during takeoff and reentry are designed to protect astronauts from fire, and they plug into seat umbilicals that carry oxygen and cool air in case the cabin depressurizes for some reason. Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, the astronauts who went up on the Crew Dragon to the ISS in May, remarked that they were extremely comfortable and easy to get on and off. In place of the baggy orange Advanced Crew Escape Suit (affectionately nicknamed the "pumpkin suit”) that space shuttle crews used to wear when launching into orbit, SpaceX and Boeing have designed something that is much more form-fitting and half the mass. The emergence of new private vehicles like SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s Starliner means NASA astronauts going to the International Space Station are wearing new spacesuits that are extremely sleek and chic. Fortunately, though, the flurry of new activity in space has meant we’re seeing more innovation in spacesuit design and performance than ever before.
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