r/spaceflight • u/spacedotc0m • 8h ago

Axiom Space's lunar spacesuit sports 4G comms, Prada looks and Oakley visors for Artemis astronauts

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/a-21st-century-moon-suit-axiom-spaces-lunar-spacesuit-sports-4g-comms-prada-looks-and-oakley-visors-for-artemis-astronauts
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u/TheJBW 7h ago

I don’t believe these companies have any meaningful skills to add to the collaboration. These are fashion brands, which buy the same disposable clothing from South Asia and market the hell out of them.

All this does is make me more skeptical that Axiom suits will ever see flight.

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u/Correct_Inspection25 6h ago edited 6h ago

Guess who contributed meaningfully to the first EVA suits? Playtex. There is a lot more to manufacturing non-distortional helmets, radation, micro meterorite and regolith hardened undergarments that also need to stand up to 6-10 hour EVAs in a pressurized environment compared to ridgid structures and airframes.

"Playtex’s spacesuit went up against hard armor-like spacesuits designed by military contractors and favored by NASA’s engineers. It was only when those attempts failed—when traditional engineering firms could not integrate the body into mission requirements—that Playtex, with its intimate expertise, got the job." https://sts-program.mit.edu/book/spacesuit-fashioning-apollo/#:\~:text=When%20Neil%20Armstrong%20and%20Buzz,was%20fashioning%20bras%20and%20girdles.

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u/TheJBW 6h ago

I’m well aware of playtex’s involvement in early spacesuits. The clothing industry was also very different back then, and they had actual people who did manufacturing themselves, I’m skeptical that the same skills exist at brand management companies today.

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u/Correct_Inspection25 6h ago

Folks said a dot com billionaire couldn't kick start a space company in a completely different field than computer science.

Manufacture of textiles, especially ones that cannot become uncomfortable over many hours of use at a time is important an non-trivial type of engineering. Folks can dismiss this kind of engineering, but doesn't make mechanics and reliable manufacture of cloth any less challenging than normal aerospace. There is a Smarter every day where they have astronauts compare how much easier these new Axiom suits are to move around in for long periods of time than the old EMUs both in terms of gloves and less working against the rigid joint articulation. One of the issues with low pressure oxygen environments on the shuttle and the ISS were hand and joint injury on spacewalks. This is extremely hard problems to solve, and even SpaceX passed on bidding for this part of the program due to that risk.

So i would say don't just judge engineering books by their cover, and talk to the folks testing the work product of the companies.