by HELSINKI – China’s space agency has unveiled the exterior design of the spacesuit for the country’s future manned moon landing missions.
The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) unveiled the extravehicular moon probe on September 28 in Chongqing, southwestern China. CMSA is also asking for suggestions on a name for the suit.
The suit is being developed as part of China’s goal to land astronauts on the moon by 2030. China is also currently working on a new human-rated launcher, the Long March 10, a deep space crew spacecraft and a crew lander for the mission. . A crew rover is also being designed.
As part of the unveiling, a promotional video showed off both the suit’s appearance and key capabilities. Astronauts Wang Yaping, China’s second woman in space, and Zhai Zhigang modeled the EVA suit.
The suit is described as having a full protective fabric that protects against the harsh thermal environment and moon dust. The helmet is equipped with a panoramic, anti-reflective visor. The helmet also has separate long and short focal length cameras. There is a multifunctional integrated control console on the chest.
The suit also carries elements from Chinese culture. The red stripes on the upper parts are inspired by ribbons of the famous ‘flying apsaras’ from Dunhuang art. The overall design of the moon suit was said to build on the style of traditional Chinese armor.
Unlike China’s Feitian EVA suit used in low Earth orbit, the lunar suit is designed to be lightweight and meet the demands of operations in a low-gravity environment. It allows movements such as squatting and bending.
“The suit makes more actions possible. With different postures, the condition should therefore not be affected after a change in posture. Therefore, it requires a better fit to the human body,” Wang Chunhui, deputy chief designer of astronaut training systems at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center, told China Central Television (CCTV).
Wang stated that the suit was designed to handle various harsh conditions. Complex environmental factors include vacuum and low gravity, lunar dust and regolith, complex surface topography, and extremely high and low temperatures. It should also protect astronauts from high radiation environments.
“Considering that they operate under one-sixth gravity, in order to reduce the metabolic burden on the human body, it is a must to significantly reduce the weight of the suit,” Wang said. “Since astronauts will walk on the lunar surface and conduct scientific research activities, the spacesuits should have better ergonomic support capabilities and be smaller and more integrated,” he added.
The Chinese manned landing plan is for two astronauts to make a short stay of about six hours on the lunar surface. However, the mission is part of a longer-term lunar exploration.
The country will send robotic missions to the moon’s south pole in 2026 and 2028 for resource exploration and in-situ resource utilization testing, as a precursor to a lunar base. The International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) is scheduled to be built in the 2030s. It will eventually be suitable for short stays of people.
NASA, meanwhile, is working on its Artemis program to return astronauts to the moon and build a sustainable lunar presence.
The Artemis 3 crewed landing mission is currently scheduled for no earlier than September 2026. However, the agency’s own analysis shows that there could be significant delays for the Artemis 3 lunar lander.
NASA selected Axiom Space in 2022 to develop a spacesuit for use on the Artemis 3 mission.
Both China and NASA are engaged in efforts to attract partners for ILRS and Artemis, respectively.
