SpaceX has shown off the new spacesuit that will be worn for the first-ever commercial astronaut spacewalk during the upcoming Polaris Dawn mission.
A short video (top) shared by SpaceX on Sunday shows close-ups of the extravehicular activity (EVA) suit.
SpaceX said the new suit offers greater mobility, a state-of-the-art helmet Heads-Up Display (HUD) and camera, new thermal management textiles, and materials borrowed from the Falcon 9 rocket’s interstage and Dragon spacecraft’s trunk.
As the video shows, the suit lacks a backpack and is therefore far smaller than the one used for spacewalks at the International Space Station (ISS). The backpack on the extravehicular mobility unit (EMU) used by ISS astronauts contains life support systems such as power, air, and cooling, enabling the astronaut to perform spacewalks with greater freedom. The SpaceX suit, on the other hand, will include an umbilical providing the same systems but from inside the spacecraft.
“Building a base on the moon and a city on Mars will require millions of spacesuits,” the spaceflight company led by Elon Musk said in comments accompanying the video. “The development of this suit and the execution of the spacewalk will be important steps toward a scalable design for spacesuits on future long-duration missions as life becomes multiplanetary.”
A date for the launch of the all-private Polaris Mission has yet to be set, though SpaceX is reportedly targeting some time this year, possibly as early as the summer.
A Falcon 9 will power a Crew Dragon and four non-professional astronauts to orbit. At around 435 miles (700 kilometers) above Earth — considerably higher than the ISS, which orbits Earth at around 250 miles (402 kilometers) — two Polaris Dawn crew members will perform the first-ever commercial spacewalk using the new spacesuits. The walk will last a couple of hours and will test various aspects of the EVA suit, including its ability to move as designed in the microgravity conditions.
The Polaris Dawn mission will be led by Jared Isaacman, who first flew to space in the Inspiration4 mission in 2021 in an endeavor that entered the record books as the first all-civilian flight. That voyage was also organized by SpaceX and involved a modified Crew Dragon spacecraft with a glass dome that offered spectacular view of Earth.
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