It's fashion week for NASA.
Tuesday afternoon, the space agency revealed two new spacesuits to be worn by astronauts during Artemis missions, with the goal of landing the first woman and next man on the moon by 2024.
The full suit, named xEMU, is designed for use on the surface of the moon, and features red, white, and blue elements. The main goal for the design was to increase mobility and flexibility, enabling astronauts to move and pick up objects, like lunar rocks, with ease, reports TechCrunch. This marks a major improvement from the suits worn in the Apollo mission, which required astronauts to "bunny-hop".
The suit can also withstand temperatures ranging from -250 to 250 degrees Fahrenheit, per NASA. It features interchangable parts, allowing the suit to be worn on the International Space Station, in lunar orbit, on the moon, or on Mars, and can be upgraded to "keep crew warm in the Mars winter and prevent over heating in the summer," according to NASA.
The second suit is bright orange and meant to be worn during take-off and landing, and is dubbed the "Orion Crew Survival Suit."
The new suits feature inclusive sizing, per TechCrunch. This comes after the first all-women spacewalk was canceled earlier this year for lack of a proper-sized suit. Kristine Davis, an advanced space suit engineer at NASA, said they will fit men and women of all sizes.
"We want every person who dreams of going into space to be able to say to themselves, that yes, they have that opportunity," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine during the unveiling. Read more at TechCrunch.
