On Wednesday local time, NASA revealed that it had selected axiom space and Collins aerospace to develop new space suits for the moon walk and the space walk from the international space station The agency announced the news at a live event at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Just as NASA seeks private companies to provide astronauts with ferries to and from the international space station, it also hopes to outsource the development of space suits. The maximum potential value of the contract for exploring extravehicular activities service, xevas, is $3.5 billion.
The space suit design of decades ago, which is currently used on the international space station, has passed their golden age. NASA has been researching new space suits and demonstrated a prototype of lunar walking equipment in 2019, which is called exploration extravehicular mobility unit (xemu). A 2021 NASA inspector general's office report noted that delays in the development of protective clothing would make the proposed 2024 human moon landing infeasible. NASA will now hand over responsibility for the development of Xinyu aviation service to axiom and Collins.
Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, proposed to develop space suits for the moon landing last year, but his company was not listed as a supplier by NASA.
Axiom space launched its first fully private crew to the international space station through cooperation with SpaceX earlier this year. The company is developing a commercial space station project and will need space suits for its own low earth orbit program. "Partners will own these suits and are encouraged to explore other non NASA commercial applications of data and technology they have developed with NASA," NASA said in a statement
Spacesuits will need to be flexible and adaptable to astronauts of different body types. Collins and partner ILC Dover were already working on the next generation of space suits before signing the contract with NASA. ILC Dover is known for providing space suits to the Apollo program and the international space station.
Axiom and Collins plan to show off their new space suits by 2025.
NASA is working hard to get humans back to the moon and aims to continue to exist there as a stepping stone to eventually send astronauts to Mars. The purpose of the Artemis Project is to put the first woman and the first colored man on the surface of the moon. "When we get to the moon, we will make history with these spacesuits," said Vanessa wyche, director of NASA Johnson Space Center