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.
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.
Particularly when it comes to stepping out of the spacecraft — the agency has yet to pick between Blue Origin and SpaceX’s offerings in that regard — staying protected from the extreme temperature swings, space radiation, and lack of atmosphere is extremely challenging.
That’s 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.
As Ars Technica reports, 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 for NASA as part of a $228 million contract.
“What I think we have on the Moon that we don’t really have on the space station that I want people to recognize is an extreme physical stress,” she said during a recent meeting of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Besides not getting any sleep, Rubin warned that people will be “in these suits for eight or nine hours” and doing extravehicular activities (EVAs) “every day.”
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.
“I think the suits are better than Apollo, but I don’t think they are great right now,” Rubin warned, noting “flexibility issues” and the reality that “people are going to be falling over.”
In remarks directly to Ars, Rubin elaborated, emphasizing that the suits are “definitely much better than Apollo,” but remain “still quite heavy.”
Even something as simple as getting back up after a fall — as demonstrated by the many Apollo astronauts who took a tumble while on the Moon — involves a type of “jumping pushup,” as Rubins told Ars, which is a “non-trivial” and “risky maneuver.”
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 “suit is getting there,” pointing out that “we’ve got 700 hours of pressurized experience in it right now.”
“Bending down in the suit is really not too bad at all,” he added.
NASA still plans to conduct plenty of tests involving the suit, including parabolic flight, which can simulate the partial gravity of the Moon’s surface. The agency has already put the suit through its paces underwater at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab.
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 in the first place.
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