New Artemis attire
NASA’s plans for Artemis IV include sending humans to the surface of the moon for the first time since the final Apollo mission in 1972.
There’s a lot to do before then. That includes testing the spacecraft that will get them to the surface (which it hopes to do next year) and developing new spacesuits.
Commercial space company Axiom Space is tasked with just that: designing and building the Extravehicular Mobility Unit for the crew of Artemis IV called the AxEMU. It’s built to withstand the moon’s harsh environment and keep the astronauts alive.
Russell Ralston, vice president of spacecraft development for Axiom Space, said the unit is more than just the suit itself -- there’s a lot of additional equipment that goes along with it, like battery chargers and tools to use on the lunar surface.
“As part of the system, we're providing a lot of the tools that the astronauts will use to perform scientific or geology tasks and things like that on the moon,” he said. “It’s really the whole suite of and system of things that the astronauts need to conduct EVA’s [Extravehicular activities] during their mission.”
While this suit is completely new, Ralston said Axiom Space was able to learn and use some of the technology in other spacesuits. The team learned from a previous design project, along with lessons learned from the Apollo spacesuits.
“Really what I would say, is that comprehensively, we've refined that architecture, combined it with some new things that we've innovated, and ultimately, the suit we have today is kind of a revolutionary new spacesuit.”
For the aesthetics of the spacesuit, Axiom Space partnered with Prada. While designing, Ralston said it was important for the spacesuit to be iconic, and for people to resonate with the gear since it will be NASA’s first-time sending people back to the moon’s surface in decades.
“It’s going to inspire a whole new generation of people,” Ralston said. “It needs to be something that people can connect with and relate with. While the engineering is unquestionably impressive, I mean we have some of the best engineers in the world here, that connection to the broader public was incredibly important for us.”
Controversy grows as SpaceX tries to strike a land deal
In Texas, SpaceX wants to trade the U.S. for land. Specifically, 715 acres of conservation land near Starbase, the company’s manufacturing and launch facility for its giant rocket Starship.
The trade would give back 683 acres to the U.S, but groups say that swap would violate multiple laws and threaten the local environment. Opposition cited concerns over historical land and local wildlife life.
Those concerns sparked a lawsuit between local tribal and conservation groups and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, citing that the trade would violate multiple laws and do things like hurt the local environment.
Mike Wall, the channel editor for space flight and tech at Space.com, said the main concerns stem from protecting the area’s wetlands with things like shorebirds and the area’s ocelots. Ocelots are wildcats and are classified as endangered in the U.S. and Mexico.
“Part of the lawsuit kind of says, if SpaceX takes over, part of this core part of this one national wildlife refuge that supports an ocelot population, it's going to degrade that habitat,” Wall said. “There are other things that they cite too about how you Starbase operations and these Starship launches are bad for sort of shorebirds and they're endangered shorebirds in the area. “
Starbase is the company’s location in Texas that supports the development and testing of its giant Starship rocket.
While official plans for the acres of land have not been shared, Wall said he assumes it’s to increase Starbase’s operations. The base was incorporated as a city, and Wall said he anticipates the company wants to further develop the city and its operations.
“That means building a lot of residential areas for SpaceX workers and more industrial buildings because they have huge plans for Starship,” Wall said. “They want to be launching this thing like 1000’s of times per year, which means a ton of manufacturing, kind of like a huge manufacturing footprint down there. That's just going to require a lot of support, staff and buildings and infrastructure. So, I assume that's what they envision for the area, but that's just an assumption.”
An injunction was also filed by the plaintiffs to stop the land trade.
