NASA unveils prototype spacesuit design

Wednesday, April 30, 2014 - 08:00 From NASA Reports

The new spacesuit prototype will be tested by NASA engineers. Image: NASA.

The public has spoken. Future astronauts will wear turquoise.

      A spacesuit design dubbed Technology, which features a Y-shaped turquoise design, won a public vote hosted on NASA’s website earlier this year. The Technology option received 233,431 votes – 63 percent of the total, soundly defeating a second design that featured waterlike swirls and a third design that featured purple raindrops.
      The Technology design will be incorporated into a version of the suit expected to be ready for testing by November.
     The space agency continues to improve the equipment that will be used when astronauts land on Mars. These suits, called the Z-series, are in the prototype (nonflight) phase, so the design won’t be making a trip to space.
      NASA is planning comprehensive tests for the suit, including vacuum-chamber tests that will mimic the lack of atmosphere in space. The suit also will be tested at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, an indoor pool used to train astronauts for spacewalks. And, of course, NASA will test the suit on a rocky surface similar to Mars. As engineers determine what works and what doesn’t, they will fine-tune technologies to be used on the red planet.

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