Business.com, Jakarta – An astronaut needs special clothing to protect him from the high conditions of the universe. Currently, NASA is designing a new space suite in 2024 for its next lunar mission.
The space suite is the astronauts’ own ‘spaceship’. It takes astronauts time to adjust, and even takes about four hours, so that all operations and equipment can work optimally.
Kathleen Lewis, curator of international space events and space suits at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, said astronauts also need hours and need the help of colleagues to dress up.
While discussing the space suite, he explained that the suite was intended to allow humans to explore freely and to operate outside the comforts of a spaceship or space station.
Made of half a dozen different components, this space suite has 16 layers. For the next mission, the Artemis mission, NASA will send the first woman and the first person of color to the moon wearing the new xEMU spacesuit.
xEMU, the Exploration Extra Vehicle Mobility Unit, offers technology that astronauts can explore further, but is still safe to use.
NASA astronaut Mike Finke said he could not bend down and pick up rocks while the Apollo astronauts walked on the moon.
Along with the growing spacesuits, there is now a more flexible structure with the presence of gloves.
Lewis explains that designing gloves for protection is very difficult, and allows astronauts to perform manual abilities. Gloves are one of the areas that astronauts complain about. This is because it can sometimes be disruptive, especially after hours in space. Therefore, the heating element must also be included in the glove.
Much of the space training for astronauts has been tested in the pools of NASA’s Neutral Boenzy Laboratory in Houston to stimulate a feeling of lightness like space.
Scientists have been conducting various experiments for years. By exploring different ingredients, the results of the success rate are also quite different. Kevlar is one of them. Kevlar is good for stopping bullets, but easy to cut with a knife.
Astronauts are also designed differently for each individual. It is necessary for each astronaut to identify his colleagues while wearing the dress.
NASA has invested more than $ 300 million in the XEMU development program, and the challenge of the Artemis program is to make sure that this role is optimized for lunar exploration, i.e. the dynamics to explore the rough terrain of the moon, strong enough to sustain enough weight.
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