Last March, astronauts Anne McClain and Christina Koch were scheduled to perform the first women-only spacewalk (open in new tab), but it was abruptly canceled. The reasons did not make the announcement any more favorable: the reason for the cancellation was the lack of space suits in the right size for the two women. Tweets expressing frustration and disappointment (open in new tab) spread, and people blamed NASA for the size issue.

The mission continued as planned, with Koch and astronaut Nick Hague substituting. McClane assumed that he could use a large space suit for the spacewalk, but in fact a medium-sized torso section was required and he made the decision to remove it from the mission. About six months later, Koch and Jessica Mir, members of the 2013 graduating astronaut class, performed the first women-only spacewalk, about a month after Mir arrived at the International Space Station (ISS).

Around the same time as that spacewalk, NASA unveiled an entirely new design of space suit. On the Internet, it was called the first "women's space suit," following the backlash seven months earlier. Little did the public know, but in fact NASA had been working for several years on the research and development of this new space suit, known as the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU), as part of the Artemis program, which aims to become the first woman to reach the moon and, eventually, Mars.

When Marie Claire asked NASA how the next-generation space suits, still under development, are tailored for women, NASA emphasized that the space suit engineers are designing them with anthropometry, or the dimensions and proportions of the human body, in mind. In other words, the new space suits will be available in more sizes to accommodate the growing number of female astronauts of various body types. [Amy Ross, a NASA space suit engineer who heads the xEMU pressure suit team, which oversees 23 engineers, said. We design to human dimensions, so we make spacesuits for humans."

The xEMU will not only have a more comprehensive size range, but also greater mobility. xEMUs, as NASA's current space suits, known as Extravehicular Mobility Units for the International Space Station, are designed for low orbit missions, with mobility in the upper torso but The upper torso has mobility, but the lower torso has limited mobility. The new xEMU space suit will increase the overall mobility of the space suit, allowing astronauts to walk, kneel, and squat while exploring the surface of the Moon and Mars. Future astronauts will enter the xEMU from the back instead of entering the space suit from the waist.

"Astronauts will also have much better visibility because they can use a dome-shaped helmet instead of a regular fishnet helmet," says Christine Davis, NASA space suit engineer and component manager for the Extravehicular Visor Assembly (EVA).

"It's important for astronauts to be able to see their feet as they walk around on the planet's surface.

The xEMU feels like carrying a backpack, thanks to shoulder straps and waist belt that distribute the weight evenly between the astronaut's shoulders and hips. When the suit is pressurized to provide a habitable environment for the crew, the weight is distributed throughout the suit, allowing the astronaut to function safely even when going into the vacuum of space.

Along with the xEMU, NASA also unveiled a new orange suit called the Orion Crew Survival System. This suit is worn by astronauts when they are launched into space and return to Earth at high speed, and will also be worn during the high-risk portion of the near-moon mission. Previously, astronauts wore the same suit during spacewalks as they did in the spacecraft.

"The purpose of returning to the Moon is to practice for a long mission on Mars. We need to make sure that the suit has good elements in reliability, durability, and safety," Ross explains. We intend to get as much information as possible about how the suit will perform so that we can do a good job when we build the final Mars suit."

Astronauts will begin fitting for their space suits several years before they are assigned to a mission. Astronauts will learn the movements and functions of their space suits in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) and practice underwater swimming in real space suits in one of the world's largest indoor pools. A full-scale model of the space station is submerged in the water to reproduce spacewalking under microgravity.

"The training was really challenging, but it was also very exciting and rewarding because it helped me imagine a real spacewalk," says Kayla Baron, 32, a member of the newest astronaut class and currently assigned to the mission. If selected for the mission, she will wear a new space suit. Every time I go to the neutral buoyancy lab, I realize that one day I will be an astronaut who does spacewalks."

She is also a member of the newest class of astronauts.

President Trump's bold declaration that men and women will walk on the moon together by 2024 requires space suit engineers to submit final designs by spring 2023. The plan calls for astronauts to test the suits first on the International Space Station and then on the moon. Still, this is an election year, and that schedule is subject to change.

"Where we are going and what we are going to do with the suit will drive the design. We are part of the executive branch, so if our bosses change, a lot of times our jobs change," Ross said. 'Still, most of the public, including Congress, agrees on what NASA's overall mission is. Individual mission strategies and deadlines may change, but the overarching goal of sending humans into space remains the same. Much of the basic work we do will remain valid no matter what happens."