ame an iconic item of clothing worn
during the 1960s and chances are you’ll
cycle through the usual suspects, from
miniskirtsthroughtothePVCdress.
Some will have graced the western world’s catwalks
during this most fashionable of decades, but one
revolutionarygarmentneverquitemadeittoParis
orMilanyethasprovedtrulyoutofthisworld.
We’re talking, of course, about the spacesuit – the
garmentwhichhasprovenessentialinallowing
astronauts to survive in the harsh environment of
outerspaceandmadetravelthereandbackmuch
safer.Suitshavebeenpartandparcelofspacetravel
from the earliest days – cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin
wore the first spacesuit, the SK-1, in space on the
iconic f light on 12 April 1961. As such, they have
allowed humans to f ly into low Earth orbit, set foot
on the Moon and perform vital duties outside of the
N
inthe1970sfortheSpaceShuttle,”explains
Southern. “But although it has been upgraded over
the years to last for longer and longer missions,
including the International Space Station, it cannot
last much longer in terms of time.”
There are clear reasons for this. The simplest
is that current stock levels for extravehicular
spacesuits is low, and they are expected to last
forjustfivemoreyears.“Thereareonly12EMUs
left, and some vendors don’t even exist, so it’s
notassimpleasorderingmore,”saysSouthern.
Furthermore, EMUs – despite offering dexterity and
flexibility, allowing astronauts to breathe, dealing
with waste and regulating temperature, among
many other features – will need to cope with extra
demands placed upon them.
That’s because NASA – pushed along by its
former administrator Charles Bolden – is seeking a
greaternumberofhuman-focusedmissions.The
US agency proposes to put boots on the Moon once
more, and there are plans for future human travel
to Mars. And yet, as Southern states, “Current suit
systems do not work well in dusty environments
like the Moon or Mars. Next-generation missions
will involve longer duration and longer distance
from Earth, which will drive up requirements for
reliability.” It’s abundantly clear that a whole new
approach to spacesuit design is urgently required.
So what direction are they heading in? One of the
top spacesuit designers is Amy Ross who works at
NASA’s Johnson Space Center. She helped pioneer a
newglovedesigninthe1990storeplacethe4000
series EVA glove introduced in 1985, and she has
also worked on new pressure garments and better
surface EVA suits.International Space Station (ISS) – yet they are far
from perfect.
“Spacesuits are notoriously bulky, heavy,
immobile and risky,” says Ted Southern, president
of Final Frontier Design, a company which develops
safety garments to enable future human space
travel. To that end, Southern knows exactly where
and why improvements are necessary. For while
past and current spacesuits have been more than
adequate for f leeting visits to the lunar surface and
working on the ISS, future plans and ambitions are
ensuring the race to redesign them is very much on.
Spacesuits are not merely an item of protective
clothing. They are anthropomorphic, miniature
machines with the complexity of a larger space
vehicle. Each contains about 2,000 parts, every
one critical for safeguarding the life of the wearer
and allowing them to perform tasks. Trouble is, the
current crop are ageing, and they are essentially
unchanged from those used throughout the Space
Shuttle program. Indeed, the intravehicular activity
(IVA) suits are pretty much the same as those worn
in 1959 and, when you consider the need for lighter,
more reliable suits, especially for the forthcoming
space tourism market, it’s clear new materials and
designs are needed.
What we are seeing now are bold attempts to
drag spacesuit design into the 21st century while
smashing the manufacturing duopoly which has
existed for decades. In doing so designers are
tackling the orange ‘pumpkin’ Advanced Crew
Escape Suit (ACES), IVA suits and the current
Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) – that is, the
white outfits used by astronauts operating outside of
a spacecraft in Earth’s orbit. “The EMU was designedLeft:
Spacesuits are
imperative in
performing
extravehicular
activityBottom left:
The current
spacesuits are
different to
the ones used
back in 1961,
but they are
still in need of
an updateSpacesuit redesign