SpaceX has demonstrated a new spacesuit that will be used during the first ever commercial spacewalk by astronauts. This event is supposed to happen during the Polaris Dawn mission. The company has released a video showing a close-up of the “spacesuit for extravehicular activity” (EVA).
SpaceX claims that the new spacesuit is more comfortable, much more mobile, made of special textiles for thermoregulation, and also equipped with a modern Heads-Up Display (HUD) helmet with a built-in high-quality camera.
The EVA spacesuit has a noticeable difference from traditional bulky EMU spacewalk suits – the absence of a backpack, which includes oxygen cylinders, batteries and thermoregulation systems. EVA will be directly connected to the Crew Dragon spacecraft, from where power and life support systems will be supplied via special tubes. This method will allow astronauts to perform spacewalks with greater freedom.
“The development of this spacesuit and spacewalk will be important steps towards scalable spacesuit design for future long-term missions, as humanity begins to colonize other worlds,” SpaceX comments.
A launch date for the fully private Polaris mission has not yet been set. However, SpaceX plans for this to be done this year, possibly as early as the summer. The Falcon 9 launch vehicle will carry the crew of Crew Dragon and four astronauts into orbit. At an altitude of about 700 km above Earth – significantly higher than the ISS, which orbits the Earth at an altitude of about 400 km – two crew members of Polaris Dawn will make the first ever commercial spacewalk using new spacesuits. The walk will last several hours and will allow them to test various aspects of the EVA suit, including its ability to move in microgravity, as envisaged by the project.
The Polaris Dawn mission will be led by Jared Isaacman. He flew into space for the first time in 2021 during the Inspiration4 mission, which entered the record books as the first fully civilian flight. This flight was also organized by SpaceX on a modified Crew Dragon spacecraft with a glass dome from which an impressive view of the Earth opened.
Earlier, we reported on how NASA tested a new generation universal spacesuit for $97.2 million.
According to webpronews.com
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