Links: SmartPlanet.com Article / NASA - Constellation Mission Pages / TechnologyReview.com (MIT) Article / David Clark Company Website /

With NASA having just awarded the $500 million contract for their next generation spacesuit, we now know that it will have interchangeable arm, leg, and feet modules that could be used interchangeably with different torsos.

(Image: Constellation Spacesuit System Engineering Project Manager Terry Hill)

When you have a big outing planned, you simply must have the right outfit. Such is the logic behind the $500 million contract awarded to develop NASA's next spacesuit. The suit will not only outfit astronauts outside the International Space Station and on the planned 2020 trip to the Moon, but it will be able to sustain life for up to 120 hours and will be suitable for trips to Mars.

"Without the suit there is no manned mission", said Terry Hill, NASA's spacesuit system engineering project manager for Constellation, the agency's program for exploration. "We're working [with] what we've learned from past programs like Apollo and Space Shuttle, and we were challenged by Constellation program management to develop a one-suit system to do it all."

The new suit will have a plug and play design so that different modules (arms, legs, feet) can be used interchangeably with different torsos. (Think of it as several outfits for the price of one.) The suit will be lighter weight, more flexible, and more breathable than existing suits and will be equipped with a computer that links directly back to Earth. (The suits will also be easier to put on; existing suits take three hours to don.) The suit is being designed and developed by Oceaneering International, which partnered with David Clark Company, veterans of spacesuit development.

(Source: SmartPlanet.com, NASA, TechnologyReview.com (MIT), David Clark Company)