NASA Testing Modified Spacesuit For Asteroid Mission

NASA has started testing a modified version of its existing pumpkin-orange Advanced Crew Escape System at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory near the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA had decided to build a new version of this spacesuit considering the needs of future space missions one of which involves spacewalking on an asteroid in 2025. The tests are being conducted underwater to simulate the conditions of space. The tests will help the engineers to find out ways to improve the mobility of the spacesuit by implementing enhanced gloves and elbow joints. NASA states that most of the modifications have been done on the innards of the spacesuit keeping the outer design intact.


These spacesuits will be used on the Orion spacecraft. NASA currently uses the white Extravehicular Mobility Unit spacesuits for spacewalks on the International Space Station. But with this spacesuit NASA will be attempting to revive its old tradition of using just one spacesuit for inside and outside the spacecraft. NASA’s ambitious asteroid project involves capturing an asteroid and bringing it to a stable orbit around the moon and investigating it. NASA has requested a $105 million budget for this mission from the federal government in its annual budget request for the year 2014. For now though you can have a look at the tests being conducted in the video below.


Source: NASA testing lighter, more mobile spacesuits for asteroid-wrangling mission - The Verge