Luxury fashion house Prada will be designing next-generation space suits for American space agency NASA. According to the BBC, the Italian brand is teaming up with private company Axiom Space to create the new range of space suits. They will be used in Artemis Mission III, through which NASA plans to put boots on the moon, the outlet further said. The mission is set to be launched in 2025. In a release, Axiom said Prada said they would bring expertise with materials and manufacturing to the project.
"Prada has considerable experience with various types of composite fabrics and may actually be able to make some real technical contributions to the outer layers of the new space suit," Professor Jeffrey Hoffman, who flew five NASA missions and has carried out four spacewalks, told the BBC.
He, however, added that these space suits won't be fancy because in extreme environments like space, maintaining a good thermal environment is really the critical thing.
"A spacesuit is really like a miniature spacecraft. It has to provide pressure, oxygen, keep you at a reasonable temperature," said Professor Hoffman.
The new space suits are expected to provide astronauts with advanced capabilities for space exploration.
"Prada's technical expertise with raw materials, manufacturing techniques, and innovative design concepts will bring advanced technologies instrumental in ensuring not only the comfort of astronauts on the lunar surface, but also the much-needed human factors considerations absent from legacy spacesuits," the company's chief Michael Suffredini was quoted as saying by The Independent.
These suits are expected to give astronauts an increased range of motion and flexibility to explore more of the moon's landscape than on previous missions.
Earlier this year, NASA unveiled the prototype design for the Artemis III space suits.
Elon Musk's SpaceX has been chosen to take the astronauts on the moon for human landing on the Earth's satellite. They will be brought back to the Earth after spending a few weeks on the lunar surface.
