Photo by Loren Grush / The Verge
Today, NASA unveiled its designs for future spacesuits that astronauts will wear during trips to the lunar surface. The suits are still in development, but NASA claims they’ll be ready to keep astronauts alive in space by 2024 — the space agency’s deadline to return humans to the Moon.
Known as the xEMU, this next generation spacesuit builds on the design of suits already worn by astronauts on the International Space Station. These new ensembles are upgraded so that astronauts wearing them can live and work on the Moon. During a demonstration at NASA headquarters on Tuesday, a spacesuit engineer showed off the flexibility of the suit, proving it can twist and bend at the waist, unlike suits of the past. The suit’s legs are also pliable,…