When you have the chance to read my upcoming novel; TAC FORCE – Son’s of Khan, you will see how far mankind has come from where we are today. The story is centered around Moon Base Alpha and the opening of the first hotel on the
Moon. Most of the necessary resources like oxygen, water and food are being produced on base. Specialized equipment and processors have been developed to make sustainable living on the moon a reality.
When I see articles like the one below describing the new space suits astronauts of the Artemis project will wear, I see how far mankind and our technology must advance before a base like the one described in my novel is possible. We have a long way to go, but if we have the will, I am sure we will get there.
As astronauts get ready to go back to the moon and spend more time in space, they’ll need better gear to help them survive.
December 29, 2020
The upper torso of NASA’s xEMU design. NASA
A spacesuit is more like a miniature spacecraft you wear around your body than an item of clothing. It’s pressurized, it’s decked out with life support systems, and it’s likely to look pretty cool. But should the suit fail, you’re toast.
No one has ever died because of a faulty spacesuit, but that doesn’t mean current models are perfect. Whether it’s for launch into space or reentry back to Earth, or for an extravehicular activity (EVA, colloquially known as a spacewalk), astronauts have never been completely satisfied with the gear they are forced to put on for missions.
Fortunately, though, the flurry of new activity in space has meant we’re seeing more innovation in spacesuit design and performance than ever before. The suits look better, too. The emergence of new private vehicles like SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s Starliner means NASA astronauts going to the International Space Station are wearing new spacesuits that are extremely sleek and chic. In place of the baggy orange Advanced Crew Escape Suit (affectionately nicknamed the “pumpkin suit”) that space shuttle crews used to wear when launching into orbit, SpaceX and Boeing have designed something that is much more form-fitting and half the mass. Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, the astronauts who went up on the Crew Dragon to the ISS in May, remarked that they were extremely comfortable and easy to get on and off. Suits that are worn during takeoff and reentry are designed to protect astronauts from fire, and they plug into seat umbilicals that carry oxygen and cool air in case the cabin depressurizes for some reason.
The most interesting work, however, has to do with NASA’s next-generation spacesuit for astronauts going to the moon—the eXploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or xEMU. It is ostensibly the successor to the spacesuits worn by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and other Apollo astronauts when they set foot on the lunar surface half a century ago.…