By Peter M. Schneider
Marylin Monroe’s white dress, which swirls in the air in Billy Wilder’s “The Seven Year Itch,” cost its buyer the equivalent of 3.2 million euros at an auction in 2011. The engineers who are currently working on a new space suit for NASA should only smile mildly. Your clothes will cost many times that.
What is probably the most expensive piece of clothing in the world is to be used in 2025 or later on the Artemis 3 mission, when people set foot on the moon again more than 50 years after the last landing. NASA recently awarded the contract for the space suits to Axiom Space. Axiom is said to receive the equivalent of 230 million euros for the suits of the first two moon walkers alone. For further missions on and on the moon as well as for the International Space Station ISS, NASA is placing orders worth until 2034 of the equivalent of a good 3.5 billion euros.
For critics of a new moon landing, the price tag on the exclusive work clothes may be proof of the insanity of the whole undertaking. However, it is because space suits are no less than miniature spaceships. The high-tech clothing – not to be confused with the simple pressure suits for take-off and landing – is intended to keep astronauts alive in an environment that is hard to beat in hostility to life: cosmic radiation that is not filtered by any atmosphere, surface temperatures between plus 100 degrees and minus 180 Degrees Celsius and the finest, sharp-edged lunar soil require the most complex technology.
From the outside the moon dust disturbs, from the inside the astronaut sweat
The lunar dust known as regolith settles so firmly in the fabric of space suits that even the Apollo astronauts looked like buddies from the Ruhr at the end of their excursions. The dust is still considered an acute danger for seals, articulated joints and valves. Then there are the exhalations. “Astronauts sweat and exhale moist air,” says ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, who was the last German to travel in space this spring. “This air with less oxygen and more CO₂ has to be transported away and cleaned and dehumidified by the life support system in the backpack.”
Space suits are therefore constructed in a kind of airtight onion look, through the layers of which numerous cables and hoses run so that the astronauts do not overheat or freeze to death, and always remain dry – although there is no toilet inside the suit, astronauts wear diapers in it.
Nasa does have a current space suit model, which it developed almost 50 years ago for the US space shuttles and later for repair work outside of the United States ISS further developed. But the items of clothing called EMUs (“Extravehicular Mobility Unit”) are unsuitable for the moon. “The ISS“The suits are designed for zero gravity, not for the lunar surface,” says Maurer. So they lack the necessary moon boots, since their wearers just float around in space. “They’re also way too heavy and bulky. If I tried to kneel down with it to look at a rock, I would pass out.”
Even the suit of the first moon landing cannot simply be rebuilt in a modernized way. The Apollo astronauts only wore it for a few hours, and only a maximum of three times per mission. However, the Artemis astronauts are expected to spend several weeks on the moon and slip into their outdoor suits more often in order to work on the surface for up to nine hours at a time.
A new suit, called xEMU, is also to be equipped with the latest technology such as high-resolution cameras and space WiFi. In addition, the suits must also fit female astronauts in the future, after all, this time a woman is to take the first step on the moon. The current EMU is available in sizes M, L and XL – but only for men.
Above all, the astronauts should no longer have to contort themselves when they step into the suit, which was previously divided into trousers and a very rigid top. “Going in there is like giving birth in reverse, a real agony,” said Maurer. Ironically, the new suit takes its cue from the Russian Orlan space suit, whose origins are no less ancient than those of the EMU: “With the Orlan, you get in through a back door, it’s a lot easier, and I can even get in alone. Although the Russian suit looks brown and old – that’s top engineering.”
Suits are also becoming scarce on the ISS
Nasa’s problem: its engineers have been researching new models for 15 years and spent the equivalent of over 400 million euros. Despite this, there is still no finished suit. Because the engineers are struggling with so many technical and organizational difficulties that the delays have now added up to almost two years, which gives NASA two problems.
Because the xEMU should ideally also be used on the ISS in an adapted form. There, at least the US and ESA astronauts are gradually running out of work clothes. Of the 18 suits originally made, only 11 are still operational, and their maintenance costs 150 million euros a year. And one example is missing, because Matthias Maurer got water in his helmet during his field work, and the suit had to be flown to earth for inspection.
The other problem is the schedule: 2025 could be close. This is also due to the fact that the changing US governments have not wanted to commit themselves to a specific mission goal in space for decades. Only a few years ago, it became clear that the astronauts should land in the rocky south pole region of the moon, only then could NASA start developing the shoes.
To the surprise of the astronaut corps, Nasa is now trying to smash all its problems with cost increases and delays with the service contract with the private company Axiom Space. Axiom has unrestricted access to the work of NASA. In return, the company promises to deliver the suits on time at a fixed price.
NASA also uses this procurement system for other expensive hardware, such as rockets and spaceships. Nasa only buys the service of the partner, who can also use their product for other purposes. Axiom Space intends to do the same. The company organizes million dollar flights for space tourists ISS and is building a private space station to take it to the ISS to dock. Space suits are also needed for their maintenance.