{"id":446199,"date":"2026-01-30T00:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T00:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/446199\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T00:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T00:10:07","slug":"nasas-moon-spacesuits-are-plagued-with-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/446199\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA’s Moon Spacesuits Are Plagued With Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASA is gearing up for the first crewed journey to the Moon in over half a century, a mission that could launch as soon as two weeks from now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And next year, the agency will finally attempt to return astronauts to the lunar surface itself as part of its Artemis 3 mission, which will dramatically increase the already considerable stakes.<\/p>\n

Particularly when it comes to stepping out of the spacecraft \u2014 the agency has yet to pick between Blue Origin and SpaceX\u2019s offerings in that regard \u2014 staying protected from the extreme temperature swings, space radiation, and lack of atmosphere is extremely challenging.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to mention the physical limitations of an extremely bulky spacesuit, which could physically tax astronauts even more than stepping outside of the International Space Station during a spacewalk.<\/p>\n

As Ars Technica reports<\/a>, former NASA astronaut and microbiologist Kate Rubins, who retired last year and has logged 300 days in space, recently voiced her concerns over the Moon suit that private space company Axiom Space has been developing<\/a> for NASA as part of a $228 million contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I think we have on the Moon that we don\u2019t really have on the space station that I want people to recognize is an extreme physical stress,\u201d she said during a recent meeting<\/a> of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.<\/p>\n

Besides not getting any sleep, Rubin warned that people will be \u201cin these suits for eight or nine hours\u201d and doing extravehicular activities (EVAs) \u201cevery day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compared to the suits NASA astronauts wore during the Apollo missions, the Axiom Space suit is considerably heavier. While a sixth of gravity will greatly alleviate some of that heft, they still weigh in at 300 pounds. At the same time, Moon walkers will enjoy greatly enhanced flexibility, allowing them to kneel down to pick up objects, for instance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the suits are better than Apollo, but I don\u2019t think they are great right now,\u201d Rubin warned, noting \u201cflexibility issues\u201d and the reality that \u201cpeople are going to be falling over.\u201d<\/p>\n

In remarks directly to Ars, Rubin elaborated, emphasizing that the suits are \u201cdefinitely much better than Apollo,\u201d but remain \u201cstill quite heavy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even something as simple as getting back up after a fall \u2014 as demonstrated<\/a> by the many Apollo astronauts who took a tumble while on the Moon \u2014 involves a type of \u201cjumping pushup,\u201d as Rubins told Ars, which is a \u201cnon-trivial\u201d and \u201crisky maneuver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not everybody is as concerned about the Axiom Space suit. Current NASA astronaut and physician Mike Barratt argued in remarks during the committee meeting that the \u201csuit is getting there,\u201d pointing out that \u201cwe\u2019ve got 700 hours of pressurized experience in it right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBending down in the suit is really not too bad at all,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

NASA still plans to conduct plenty of tests involving the suit, including parabolic flight, which can simulate the partial gravity of the Moon\u2019s surface. The agency has already put the suit through its paces underwater<\/a> at NASA\u2019s Neutral Buoyancy Lab. <\/p>\n

The agency has until sometime next year to finalize the design for its long-awaited Artemis 3 mission to the lunar surface. At the same time, NASA still has plenty of decisions to make, including how to get down to the lunar surface<\/a> in the first place.<\/p>\n

More on Artemis: Experts Warn That There\u2019s Something Wrong With the Moon Rocket NASA Is About to Launch With Astronauts Aboard<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASA is gearing up for the first crewed journey to the Moon in over half a century, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,128,285],"class_list":["post-446199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}