The tech billionaire Elon Musk who is also the chief executive of automaker Tesla unveiled the ‘SpaceX Suit’ by posting the first official photo of his suit on Instagram. The suit itself is in black and white color and has been modeled by one of their engineers in the post. The suit is very different from the clumsy, bulky space suits we are used to of seeing. Instead, it is future looking and very sleek and simple in design and looks comfortable.
Elon Musk is working on a project known as Space X, the main goal of the project is to send humans to space by 2025 inside the company’s ‘Crew Dragon Spacecraft’. Since the start of the project the requirements of the astronauts have been changed, first, they just needed to explore and float outside the Space Station but now the motive is to head towards Mars and walk on the planet in the space suit. It is very difficult to walk in space suits which Nasa have been using since 1960 as they are very uncomfortable and heavy. This technology will likely change the space suits so they can be easier to walk and explore in.
Elon Musk did not specify much but the Space X is meant to be worn by astronauts when riding inside the Dragon Capsule, he just briefed that this is not a mock-up and it actually works and has been tested out “Was incredibly hard to balance aesthetics and function,” Elon Musk’s Instagram post said. He also promised about some photos in the next few days.
The suit is double vacuum pressure suit and will be worn by astronauts during the transport in case the Dragon capsule depressurizes, the suit is not meant to wear for space walks. The suit is very similar to the Nasa’s First generation space suit used in Apollo which was less clumsy and bulky as the astronauts did not leave their space crafts so they did not need to carry oxygen or have protection from the terrains of the Moon.
The Elon Musk’s Suit also resembles the future Nasa’s Z2 suit of next generation which was first unveiled in 2015. However, the Space X suit is still sleeker and looks more minimal than the Nasa’s Z2. This year in January the aircraft giant ‘Boeing’ also revealed their blue space suit that will be used on the way to the ISS.
This year in April a report shows that the Nasa is running out of EMUs and they can’t keep their team going until the ISS is decommissioned which is not going to happen before 2024. The report says, “Nasa is assessing the feasibility of extending ISS operations to 2028.” Till then Nasa will use their current space suit and has started developing next generation suit technologies that will replace the EMU.
The photo posted by Elon Musk is very similar to a photo posted on Reddit nearly a year ago but he says that it is not the same. The design is very futuristic and elegant and simultaneously reflects old school Nasa’s suit and is one of the best Spacesuit out there.