After years of futility, NASA turns to the private sector for help on space suits

This week, NASA’s Johnson Space Center appealed to the industry for new spacesuits. The space agency’s existing suits are decades old, and new ones are needed both for the International Space Station as well as for Artemis missions to the lunar surface later this decade.

“Our businesses in low Earth orbit, on the Moon and beyond have evolved and require innovative technology,” said Pam Melroy, deputy administrator of NASA. “The next astronauts on the Moon, including the first woman, will be safe in revolutionary space suits that will fit better and allow for greater human exploration than ever before.”

The ad hasn’t garnered much attention, but it’s important for two reasons. First of all, with this “request for proposals”, NASA can finally solve the problem of finding its next-generation spacesuits, which has plagued the agency for 14 years and costs hundreds of millions of dollars. Additionally, with this new approach to buying spacesuits, NASA is further signaling its intention in a more commercial procurement process. Essentially, it will be about leasing the suits to industry, not building them in-house at a much higher cost.

A brief history of futility

In August, NASA Inspector General Paul Martin released a comprehensive review of NASA’s efforts to develop a replacement for its Extravehicular Mobility Units, or EMUs. It is both the spacesuit and the hardware that connects the suit to a spaceship. The EMUs currently in use in orbit were designed 45 years ago for the Space Shuttle program, and they are constantly in a state of repair.

NASA has undertaken several different programs over the past 14 years, usually led by a NASA field center, to develop a new generation of space suits. NASA spent a total of $ 420 million during this time period on various space suit efforts, but this yielded limited results. After all this work, no new spacesuit will be ready for a moon landing in 2024.

“A flight-ready suit remains years to go,” Martin wrote in his August report. “NASA officials expect to spend more than $ 1 billion on design, test, qualification and development efforts before two flight-ready suits become available.”

Until the start of this year, NASA’s existing plan was to build six “xEMU” suits with the support of a contractor and supplier, and then issue a contract for the production of additional suits. (These were the “Artemis suits” that popped up at a garish event at NASA Headquarters in 2019, which, in hindsight, was more style than substance.) But that all changed in April, when NASA has announced that it is simply considering purchasing spacesuits from private industry.

A more commercial approach

Following the April statement, NASA released a draft request for proposals in July, which offered a stronger signal that it can no longer build its own spacesuits.

In an interview with Ars following the publication of this draft RFQ, one of the potential bidders said it was clear that NASA was looking to purchase suits rather than manufacture them. “As we’ve seen with spacecraft and rockets, I think we’re moving towards a more commercial approach to spacesuits,” said Patty Stoll, president of space systems at ILC Dover. “There will be a turnkey industry solution.

And now, with the new demand from the industry, NASA has done it. Bidders can use technology developed by NASA for xEMU in their proposals, or they can use their own designs, the document says. The suits must be able to meet a variety of requirements, including up to six spacewalks on the lunar surface during the initial Artemis Moon missions. They must also be made of materials such that less than 100 grams of lunar regolith is returned to the “cabin environment” after each spacewalk on the Moon. NASA plans to award a contract by next April.

This represents a fairly bold bet on the industry. Previously, NASA used fixed price contracts to purchase freight and crew services to the International Space Station. It also intends to purchase lunar landing services in a similar fashion and is now looking to extend this more purely commercial approach to space suits.

The agency seems to really be looking at this approach. “NASA’s investment in commercial space suits is another way to foster a new lunar economy with private partners,” Melroy said. “Similar to our low Earth orbit partnerships, this company will create jobs and help fuel an active economy on the Moon.”