NASA Unveils New Spacesuit | |||
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작성자 : | 관리자 | ||
In March, U.S. space agency NASA made an exciting announcement. It unveiled a new spacesuit design for its upcoming Artemis moon landing mission. The prototype suit was revealed during a special event at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The event was hosted by Axiom Space, a private spaceflight company hired by NASA to build specially tailored suits for the first voyage back to the moon since the Apollo missions. The outfit is dubbed the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or AxEMU for short. Looking at it, the first thing one notices is how different it looks from previous spacesuits. Gone are the bulky white moonsuits worn by Neil Armstrong and his fellow Apollo crew members. In their place, the new suit features a more flexible, streamlined design intended to allow greater movement. Importantly, the suit will incorporate new technologies to make moonwalking as safe and efficient as possible. Among the new features are advanced life-support systems, pressure mapping tools, and navigation and communication systems. The suit also fits a broader range of people than previous designs, accommodating at least 90 percent of the U.S. male and female population. For now, the final version of the suit remains a closely guarded secret. The charcoal gray outer layer of the prototype is actually intended to hide the details of Axiom’s unique fabric. However, the company has said that the suits to be worn by astronauts on Artemis missions will be white, in order to reflect the blazing sunlight on the moon’s surface. NASA is hoping the AxEMU suits will pave the way for its reinvigorated space program. Beginning with the Artemis 1 mission in 2022, NASA set out to test its newly built Orion spacecraft as a prelude to future manned missions. By 2025, the Artemis 3 mission will attempt to land astronauts on the moon’s South Pole for the first time in history. |