- The new spacesuit developed by Collins Aerospace is designed for use outside the International Space Station and has been successfully tested on a commercial microgravity flight.
- The new suit is lighter and has less bulk than the suits used by current NASA astronauts, so it easily adapts to changing missions and different body types.
- To further test the suit’s performance, the suit will next be tested in the vacuum of space and underwater to simulate microgravity.
The new spacesuit developed by Collins Aerospace is designed for use outside the International Space Station. The suit was tested in a commercial microgravity flight, successfully passing a key step that allowed engineers to move toward critical design review.
NASA had spent 15 years trying to develop new suits on its own since outsourcing new suit design. Collins Aerospace said the suit is lighter and has less bulk than the “enhanced” Extravehicular Mobility Units used by current NASA astronauts. The new suit can also be easily modified when tasks change and adapts to a much wider range of body types than older designs.
During the test, researchers triggered weightlessness conditions by making the vehicle perform “roller-coaster-like maneuvers” and observed whether the person wearing the suit could move under these conditions. In addition, situations of the person wearing the suit, such as passing through doors in zero gravity, were also tested.
The next step will be to place the suit in a vacuum chamber to see how it will perform in the vacuum of space. Additionally, a test 40 feet underwater at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Texas will simulate microgravity for spacewalk training.
Compiled by: Ayça Ayaz