Astronaut Fashion Is Changing. This Is Not Your Grandpa’s Spacesuit

Bold Names

The Wall Street Journal

Technology

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2023

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For the first time in decades, NASA is planning to send astronauts back to the moon. Their spacesuits will be very different from what Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin wore when they walked the lunar surface in 1969. Spacesuits today are thinner and lighter, while still making sure astronauts can complete tasks and stay alive. In this conversation from the Future of Everything festival in May, WSJ’s Danny Lewis speaks to Amy Ross, one of NASA’s top spacesuit engineers. She explains how the lessons learned from designing next-generation moon suits will eventually help astronauts explore Mars, while leading to other innovations here on Earth. Further reading: NASA, Canadian Space Agency Select Astronauts for Artemis Moon Mission NASA's New Artemis Spacesuits Are Designed to Put a Woman on the Moon NASA Plans to Bring Bits of Mars to Earth. It May Change How We See Space Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:33.0	54 years ago this month, Neil Armstrong did something no human had done before.
0:38.0	It's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
0:45.0	Those words broadcast from the moon on July 20, 1969 undersold just how tough those first steps were.
0:53.0	Armstrong and crewmate Buzz Aldrin were wearing big bulky spacesuits designed to protect them from intense cosmic radiation and the vacuum of space.
1:01.0	Each suit had more than two dozen layers of protective material, and along with the life support system weighed 81 pounds on Earth.
1:09.0	Though, since the moon's gravity is weaker, Armstrong and Aldrin only carried about 30 pounds when they stepped out of the lunar lander.
1:24.0	Astronauts are already wearing more advanced space suits for missions outside the International Space Station or ISS.
1:39.0	NASA is preparing to send humans back to the moon as early as 2025, and engineers are rethinking how to dress this next generation of astronauts.
1:50.0	Because while the Apollo suits were high-tech for the time.
1:53.0	It's like trying to combine a Mac truck and an Indie car, so the suit did everything but just none of it to the top level that it could.
2:04.0	That's NASA's Space Suit Engineer Amy Ross. She spent years designing what astronauts wear in order to accomplish their missions.
2:11.0	New space suits will have to be lighter, more flexible, and offer more mobility while making sure the person inside can survive.
2:18.0	It is a life support system. This is what's keeping you alive when you're in the environment that doesn't necessarily care if you stay alive or not.
2:26.0	And it kind of doesn't actively work against you, but sure doesn't help.
2:32.0	From the Wall Street Journal, this is the future of everything. I'm Danny Lewis.
2:38.0	At the future of everything festival in May, I spoke with Amy Ross about designing lighter, more flexible, and more mobile space suits for this new mission to the moon.
2:47.0	And to survive environments where no human has gone before, like Mars. Stay with us.
3:01.0	This episode is brought to you by Shopify.
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