The lunar spacesuits for Nasa’s 2025 Artemis III mission will be designed in cooperation between the Italian luxury brand Prada and the Texas-based firm Axiom Space, the two companies revealed last week.
According to a joint release, Prada’s engineers will collaborate with the Axiom Space Systems team throughout the design process to create materials and design elements that will protect people from the harsh conditions of space and the lunar environment.
Axiom has a contract with Nasa to create spacesuits for lunar missions, with the 2025 mission expected to land the first woman on the moon and the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.
According to Axiom Space, Italian luxury fashion designer Prada and Axiom Space Systems will collaborate on the design of astronaut suits, focusing on developing materials and design features to protect astronauts from the unique challenges of space and the lunar environment.
“We are thrilled to partner with Prada on the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit,” the company’s chief Michael Suffredini said in a statement.
“Prada’s technical expertise with raw materials, manufacturing techniques, and innovative design concepts will bring advanced technologies instrumental in ensuring not only the comfort of astronauts on the lunar surface but also the much-needed human factors considerations absent from legacy spacesuits,” Suffredini said.
The next-generation space suits are expected to provide astronauts with advanced capabilities for space exploration.
They will also be required to provide Nasa astronauts with systems needed to access, live and work on and around the Moon.
Earlier this year, Nasa unveiled the prototype design for the Artemis III spacesuits, The Independent reported.
As part of the mission, a Nasa astronaut crew would be taken to the Moon aboard the Orion spacecraft and spend weeks on the lunar surface.
SpaceX has been selected to provide the human landing system to transport the astronauts from Orion in lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon and then back again.
The mission’s advanced space suits are expected to give astronauts an increased range of motion and flexibility to explore more of the Moon’s landscapes than on previous missions.