NASA unveils new, flexible spacesuits

[nitpicker]

https://www.dw.com/en/nasa-unveils-new-flexible-spacesuits/a-50853005

NASA unveils new, flexible spacesuits

NASA has shown off a new generation of spacesuits tailored for future moonwalking astronauts. The US space agency says the new suits make it much easier to walk, bend and squat when walking on the lunar surface.

Standing in front of a giant US flag, two NASA engineers showed off the new spacesuits, modeling and doing squats and crunches in front of a crowd of students and reporters to reveal what the first zero-gravity space-wear under NASA's Artemis moon program would look like.

The suits, NASA said, offer key advantages over those of the Apollo-era. They make it much easier to walk, bend and squat when walking on the lunar surface, Amy Ross, NASA's lead spacesuit engineer, said.

One suit of orange fabric will be worn by astronauts when inside the spacecraft. Astronauts will wear a much bigger mostly white suit on the lunar surface.

The new suits come as a much-needed upgrade to NASA's astronaut wardrobe. "This is the first suit we've designed in about 40 years," Chris Hansen, a manager at NASA's spacesuit design office, said.

"What you saw today was a prototype of the pressure garment. The life support system is back in a lab in Houston," he said. "We want systems that allow our astronauts to be scientists on the surface of the moon."

Another key innovation is the suit's unlimited capacity to absorb carbon dioxide, a byproduct of respiration that is also poisonous in high quantities.