The next U.S. astronauts to walk on the moon will do so in style. Axiom Space and Prada have revealed the outer cover layer for the AxEMU spacesuit to be worn on NASA's first Artemis mission to land…
— The next U.S. astronauts to walk on the moon will do so in style. Axiom Space, a Houston-based spaceflight services company, and Italian luxury fashion house Prada have revealed the outer layer of the spacesuit to be worn on NASA's first Artemis mission to land humans on the lunar surface. The unveiling occurred at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan. "We have broken the mold," said Matt Ondler, Axiom's president, in a statement issued on Wednesday (Oct. 16). "The Axiom Space-Prada partnership has set a new foundational model for cross-industry collaboration."
Since first showing off a prototype of the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or AxEMU, in 2023, Axiom has configured the spacesuit with a dark outer layer created by Esther Marquis, the costume designer for the alternate space history series "For All Mankind." The temporary black, blue and orange cover was intended to hide the garment's proprietary elements during its development.
The final, flight version of the suit features a mostly white exterior for the same reasons most other spacesuits are light in color: to reflect heat, protecting its wearer from the high temperatures encountered when in direct sunlight. The white material also helps mitigate lunar dust by making it easier to see on the fabric. "I'm very proud of the result we're showing today," said Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada Group chief marketing officer and head of corporate social responsibility. "We've shared our expertise on high-performance materials, features and sewing techniques, and we learned a lot." The spacesuit has dark gray pads on the elbows and knees, as well as similarly-colored hip joints. The boots feature a light blue sole, similar in hue to the Apollo-era overshoes last used on the moon more than 50 years ago and there are attach points for red stripes as were added to Apollo, space shuttle and space station suits to help distinguish between crew members. The upper torso assembly, with its integrated helmet and portable life support system (PLSS) backpack, also has attach points for embroidered national flags and a mission patch (or as shown on Wednesday, Axiom Space's AxEMU emblem). Emphasizing this is a commercial design, Axiom's "AX" logo is also sewn in gray on the suit's mid-body flap.NASA awarded Axiom Space a $228 million task order in 2022 to provide the suits for the Artemis III mission, which is expected to launch no earlier than late 2026.
"We are pioneering a new era in space exploration where partnerships are imperative to the commercialization of space," said Russell Ralston, executive vice president of extravehicular activity at Axiom Space, referring to the work the company has done with Prada. "For the first time, we are leveraging expertise in other industries to craft a better solution for space."
The AxEMU suit passed its preliminary design review and will enter the critical design review phase in 2025. According to Axiom, the suit has been designed to support moonwalks lasting at least eight hours and has been tailored to meet the needs of NASA's chosen landing region on the moon. The AxEMU has been designed to withstand the extremes at the lunar south pole and endure the coldest temperatures in the permanently-shadowed regions for at least two hours.
The suit features an on board diagnostic system, a regenerable carbon dioxide scrubbing system and cooling technology to remove heat. It includes coatings on the helmet and visor to enhance the wearer's view and improved gloves over the gauntlets worn previously on the moon and in space. The AxEMU has undergone testing and simulations with a variety of astronauts and engineers at in-house, SpaceX and NASA facilities. The suit has been put through unoccupied trials underwater at NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) and has gone through reduced gravity simulations at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.Further testing, including crewed runs in the NBL and integrated trials with the prototypes for the Artemis Lunar Terrain Vehicle (or moon rovers) will continue as the AxEMU enters its final development stage over the next year.
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Comments
By aphantastic 2024-10-200:063 reply Lot of people here talking trash on this probably don’t know the history or even current status of Prada. In short they are absolute top of the line when it comes to everything from the pattern work to the actual nuts and bolts of manufacturing this sort of thing. Any other company would very likely take more time and money to produce and inferior product.
By drivingmenuts 2024-10-203:26 I was going to ask what Prada brings to the table, but I guess it’s industrial knowledge in clothing fabrication? I can’t imagine NASA really cares what they look like as long as they don’t look like total dorks.
By wtfwhateven 2024-10-200:121 reply Where can I read more about Prada's other ventures into this sort of thing?
By aphantastic 2024-10-200:14 Novel pattern work and top of the line quality in manufacturing? Probably your local Prada boutique would be a good start. Or prada.com barring that.
By aphantastic 2024-10-201:411 reply You missed the last sentence where I explicitly stated that other companies could produce similar products, but it’d very likely be more expensive and less functional?
I’m sure we could spin up some other custom suit production facility, but it wouldn’t save us money vs using the existing fully in-house pipelines already battle-tested by the industry leaders.
Just like most people don’t understand the inner workings of software, a lot of software engineers seem to not understand there’s deep layers of skill and technology beneath things that many would deem useless, like fashion. I’d like to see more crossover between science and “regular people stuff” like this.
The deep layers of skill have always been interesting to me. I used to watch a lot of project runway and those awful cooking shoes on food network because you could catch glimpses of hugely technical skill.
Those are the shows that helped me to understand, partly, that every job from janitor to Jesus requires specialized knowledge gained over years of experience. I’m sad that on hacker news there are so many negative comments and closed minds.
Read The Theory of the Leisure Class and understand what the purpose is of "Conspicuous Luxury".
It is usually taught to business and economics classes to servants of the Elite that require that knowledge to manage their assets. Not to the "high skilled" clueless servants in the factory and design studios.
By aphantastic 2024-10-2012:48 Yes, some luxury products are little lore than a brand icon tiled to cover the entirety of a poorly made hand bag. I agree.
But that’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about the preeminent fabric/leather/composite composing studio in the world with a long history of creating military, sporting, racing, and yes: fashion goods. They have a fully in house production pipeline and complete control over every step of the process, something unique to them across all of the boutiques. They additionally have a long history of creating new and unique patterns for their prices, and are arguably the most knowledgeable folks on the plant when it comes to designing cuts for optimal 3D shape, flexibility, and long term performance.
But don’t just take my word for it, consider what an actual astronaut who has spent 1,200+ hours in space and used suits like this for life support while floating hundreds of miles above the earth’s surface performing critical repairs to Hubble and many other scientific instruments says:
> Prada has considerable experience with various types of composite fabrics and may actually be able to make some real technical contributions to the outer layers of the new space suit
- Jeffery Hoffman, 5 time astronaut and 4 time space walker.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67022619
I’ll take that over 100+ year old ramblings from a time when folks thought artisans hand stitching every garment was the baseline.
By aphantastic 2024-10-202:32 Can’t recommend the Alexander McQueen documentary enough for a glimpse of genius at work.
I think that the SpaceX EVA suits are just a little too sleek and modern yet bland. Like default Unreal Engine spacesuit assets.
Pleasantly surprised to see these spacesuits look classic yet beautiful. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Italian fashion designers did a good job.
I have no view on the technical merits of the suits or the program.
If there's one place where it's important to look stylish, it's when you're floating alone in outer space.
On the other hand, video of astronauts floating in space probably did more to get kids into STEM than most other things in the 20th century. The cultural appeal of space has a real impact on society.
By aphantastic 2024-10-201:37 I was about to say the same. At a time when the plurality of kids want to be YouTubers when they grow up^, I can’t help but feel that more investment into the “cool factor” of STEM would not be misplaced. What kind of impact would kids across the nation seeing astronauts decked out in head to toe custom Prada have on the future of our domestic research&development efforts? It’s hard to quantify, but I imagine it has to be more than whatever the minuscule additional cost a bit of flair on the space suits might add to the program.
https://www.statista.com/chart/31014/most-popular-future-job...
By bamboozled 2024-10-203:00 I think you’re right I always loved the spacesuits. I begged my grandma to make a silver Gemini suit for me for Halloween once. Loved it forever.
I felt the same about the space x suits though, boring. Look like pyjamas
By anonzzzies 2024-10-201:521 reply Is that the floating in space part and the robots and rockets surrounding it, or whatever the space suits look like? For now, space suits need to be safe and practical.
Safe and practical are not orthogonal with aesthetically pleasing!
By anonzzzies 2024-10-2016:02 Sure, but that's a matter of taste, so until we have money left as those things are taken care of, no need to spend money on aesthetics. And we are not that routinely sending people into space.
By ivewonyoung 2024-10-203:232 reply And yet the US President didn't even congratulate the first private spacewalk ever in the world recently accomplished by an American company, for purely political reasons. So sad to see.
By bastawhiz 2024-10-204:19 I'm not sure that's really an accomplishment that will inspire kids.
By ivewonyoung 2024-10-209:59 Because it's an American accomplishment?
For example here is Biden congratulating GM's Mary Barra as the leader and innovator of EVs after not inviting Tesla to an EV summit in 2021.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=UduPjk9gonw
Tesla produced about 200k EVs that quarter and GM produced just 26. Unions donate a lot so they have a lot of sway and control.
By dyauspitr 2024-10-202:09 That’s a lifetime developer perspective.
By consumer451 2024-10-2011:52 > I have no view on the technical merits of the suits or the program.
I am just an online space nerd, but, for one thing the SpaceX suits don't have the insulation required for the wearer to be in direct sunlight. It appears that they still have a ways to go before being as useful as the standard NASA EVA suit.
I think the look will change dramatically once they are at a point where it has the same usability as the NASA EVA suit. It will have to be thicker for one thing, won't it?
By lysace 2024-10-201:17 Yeah, there's just something that feels off with the SpaceX suits. They are perhaps more efficient to manufacture than NASA's first iconic designs that they then mostly just stuck with but come on.
Feels like a case of Muskian "can we delete this part/aspect without impacting the mission goals? SpaceX needs a graphical/visual designer with the power to influence stuff like this :)
I'm a noob, but on coolness factor only, this looks kinda lame?
I understand the SpaceX suits aren't rated for moonwalking but these also feel (to this layman's eyes) like the same suit we could make decades ago
These are a huge upgrade in flexability and comfort.
Aesthetics are not ignored, but they are certainly deprioritized over functionality.
Fair but it does say Prada on the label and they were revealed in the capital of fashion...
On reflection, I wish they had gone in for stronger comparisons. Shown old and new side by side and talked about where they kept things classic versus styled them up.
I also think of some things like a white shirt and black tie will never look “new” but will always look good. I’m not sure how much of “it should look like how people think a spacious should look” played a part versus is accidental.
They talked about white being functional. But did they have any choice in the matter? Could a subtle off white have been on the table? What elements of style were they allowed? Could they add extra seams? Or change angles or is it just that they slapped their logo on it? I’m genuinely curious on the details of the work.
By PeterCorless 2024-10-2217:161 reply Anything other than pure white starts absorbing light = heat = need for additional cooling. Such an aesthetic choice has actual ramifications for the wearer.
Right. I understand that. I agree it’s a good functional choice. It was my original point that functionality largely drives the design.
This comment you are responding to was me digging deep and wondering what design flexibility existed and thinking through it out loud.
Some parts aren’t white. The shoes are blue. The knees are grey. I want them to talk about that design process that led to those colors in those places and how they balanced aesthetics with functionality.
By PeterCorless 2024-10-2517:39 Got it.
By philwelch 2024-10-200:15 I mean, it’s a space suit. It’s theoretically possible to have space suits that look a lot cooler (or at least different) from this, but most of them would require huge breakthroughs in technology that we don’t have. So instead we just do a refinement on the same basic approach that we already know works. If we had exotic materials or significantly better energy storage we might be able to replace traditional space suits with space marine power armor or some sort of form fitting wetsuit-looking thing, but we ain’t there yet.
