As a local singer would say: “sooner dead than simple“. Even if you don’t know the song, that must be the idea that the American company Axiom Space, the one in charge of creating the spacesuits that will be worn by the astronauts who will go to the Moon in two years‘ time, must have in mind.
NASA’s future Artemis III mission will take place in December 2025, and will involve the participation of several companies, such as SpaceX, Airbus and Lockheed Martin, to fulfill certain purposes, such as the creation and management of a launch system, the Orion crew transport vehicle and propulsion systems.
But who designs the astronauts’ suits? According to FOX Business, Axiom Space, another NASA collaborator, has partnered with Prada, a famous Italian luxury fashion brand, for this purpose (which is no small feat).
“Prada’s technical expertise in raw materials, manufacturing techniques and innovative design concepts will bring advanced technologies that will be instrumental in ensuring not only astronaut comfort on the lunar surface, but also much-needed human factors considerations absent in legacy spacesuits,” Michael Suffredini, CEO of Axiom Space, said in a statement.
The announcement from both companies states that Prada engineers will work alongside Axiom Space’s systems team throughout the design process, developing solutions for materials and design features that protect against the challenges of space and the lunar environment.
This new spacesuit design includes greater flexibility, increased protection to withstand the harsh environment of space, and specialized tools for exploration and other scientific interests, the companies said.
“Our decades of experimentation, cutting-edge technology and design know-how, which began in the 1990s with Luna Rossa in the America’s Cup, will now be applied to the design of a spacesuit for the Artemis era,” said Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada Group marketing director.
The Artemis III mission would take place one year after Artemis II, which will fly over the Moon in 2024 without landing on it, and will be the first time in history that a woman and a black person have participated in a lunar mission.
