Commercial aerospace company Axiom Space and luxury fashion house Prada showcased the innermost layer of NASA’s stylish and next-generation lunar spacesuit.
It is called the Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment (LCVG) and will be worn inside the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit.
The garment is the first line of defense for astronauts exploring the moon’s surface for the first time in over half a century.
"The future of space exploration will not be built by any one entity alone, and our partnership with Prada is proof of that," said Dr. Jonathan Cirtain, Axiom Space CEO and President.
"By bringing together the best in both aerospace engineering as well as luxury craftmanship and advanced product development, we have developed a garment that neither company could have created independently, and that is exactly the kind of cross-industry thinking that will define the next era of human spaceflight," Cirtain added.
When astronauts step onto the lunar South Pole during NASA’s upcoming Artemis IV mission, the environment will be brutal.
Temperatures switch violently between blistering heat in direct sunlight and absolute freezing cold in deep shadow. To survive outside a spacecraft for up to eight hours, the human body needs an artificial atmosphere.
Spacewalks are physically grueling missions in which astronauts generate intense body heat that cannot dissipate naturally in the vacuum of space.
Without intervention, crew members would rapidly overheat while moving and exploring. To prevent this, the LCVG serves as a wearable radiator, using an integrated network of chilled-water tubes to continuously absorb and dissipate excess body heat.
Using Prada’s expertise in engineered knitting, advanced 3D modeling, and high-performance materials, the collaboration produced a next-generation garment optimized for comfort during spacewalks lasting up to eight hours.
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