While NASA is struggling to complete the development of its new EVA suit, SpaceX will soon test its own during the Polaris Dawn mission.
An outfit worth over a billion? The most followed influencer on our planet has not yet dared. However, this is the amount already spent by NASA on its new suit without obtaining convincing results. A setback for the American space program while SpaceX, for its part, is preparing to test its own model during the Polaris Dawn mission, whose next launch window is announced for this Friday, September 6 at 9:33 a.m. French time from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with other possibilities on Saturday and Sunday, according to the American civil aviation regulator.
A decisive innovation for the future of space
To hell with overly rigid materials and garish colours, the outfit that all the people who will set off tomorrow to attack the Red Planet, as Elon Musk has already predicted, will wear, stands out for its white colour, its over-seams at the knees, its black inserts, and above all for its lightness. Just compare the gloves of the NASA suit, which look like big sausages, to the articulated fingers of those of SpaceX. The outfits of the Star Wars stormtroopers should definitely be put back in the closet.
Faced with rockets and reactors capable of transporting humans thousands of kilometers from Earth, an outfit, no matter how futuristic, is not impressive. However, its importance is far from anecdotal. In August 2021, an American journalist specializing in space revealed on Twitter that, according to NASA’s inspector general, delays in designing a suit less archaic than that of the Apollo men compromised the return of man to the Moon planned for 2024. Since then, the Artemis III mission has been postponed to September 2026.
Materials specially developed for space constraints
Before the arrival of the model developed by SpaceX, astronauts had to make do with two types of suits for their spacewalks: the American EMU model and the Russian Orlan. This heavy and demanding equipment dates back to the early 1960s, at the time of the Gemini and Vostok programs.
To design this new suit adapted to depressurized environments, SpaceX did not start from scratch, but relied on a model already used during launches and landings. Although few details have leaked about the manufacturing, it would have required the development of new insulating materials and innovative joints, to improve the mobility of astronauts. As for the helmet, it is now equipped with a camera and a head-up display, providing the wearer with information on pressure, temperature and internal humidity. In addition to revolutionizing space tourism with the first private spacewalk in history, Polaris Dawn has a good chance of changing astronauts’ wardrobes forever. The spacewalk should be broadcast live on the third day of the mission.
