Artemis III will mark humanity’s first return to the lunar surface since 1972. Astronauts returning to the Moon as part of the Artemis III mission, currently planned for 2027, will wear a next-generation spacesuit that will allow astronauts to walk on the Moon for the first time in over 50 years.
In October 2024, at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan, Italy, Axiom Space and Prada revealed the flight design of the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit that will be used for NASA’s Artemis III mission. The outer-layer design and materials work was jointly developed starting when the two industry leaders came together, blending creativity and engineering to enhance the next-generation spacesuit design.
The AxEMU spacesuit will provide astronauts with advanced capabilities for space exploration, while offering NASA affordable, commercially developed human systems needed to access, live, and work on and around the Moon. To ensure the suit can accommodate a wide range of crew members. Axiom Space has conducted many assessments with different subjects, including engineers and astronauts.
Advanced Design
Enhancing NASA’s Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) spacesuit design, the AxEMU provides increased flexibility, performance, and safety, as well as specialized tools to aid in exploring the lunar south pole. The suit accommodates a wide range of crewmembers, including males and females from the first to 99th percentile (anthropometric sizing). It can withstand extreme temperatures at the lunar south pole and endure the coldest temperatures in the permanently shadowed regions for at least two hours. Astronauts will be able to perform spacewalks for at least eight hours.
The AxEMU incorporates multiple redundant systems and an onboard diagnostic system to ensure safety for crewmembers. The suit also uses a regenerable carbon dioxide scrubbing system and a robust cooling technology to remove heat from the system. It includes advanced coatings on the helmet and visor to enhance the astronauts’ view of their surroundings, as well as custom gloves made in-house featuring several advancements over the gloves used today. The spacesuit architecture includes life support systems, pressure garments, avionics, and other innovative systems to meet exploration needs and expand scientific opportunities.
Extensive Testing
Axiom Space developed the AxEMU using a single, foundational architecture. The architecture is evolvable, scalable, and adaptable for missions on the lunar surface and in low-Earth orbit (LEO).
Axiom Space has iteratively improved this next-gen spacesuit over the past three years to support the Artemis III mission. The AxEMU has undergone extensive testing and simulations with a wide range of astronauts and engineers at state-of-the-art Axiom Space, SpaceX, and NASA facilities. Testing was conducted underwater to simulate the lunar environment with an unoccupied spacesuit at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) and reduced gravity simulations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
Since the AxEMU prototype unveiling in March 2023, Axiom Space has made substantial progress in suit design and testing. The suit design is beyond the preliminary design review point with NASA and completed its critical design review phase in June 2024.
The AxEMU suit is nearing the final development stage. It completed a successful pressurized simulation with Artemis III partners — NASA, SpaceX, and AxiomSpace — marking the first test of its kind since the Apollo era. It will continue to undergo testing including crewed underwater tests at the NBL facility, integrated tests with the Artemis Lunar Terrain Vehicle prototypes, and has entered the critical design review phase in 2025.
Now the suit is being tested in a variety of ways to mimic the space environment. This includes testing at NBL and in thermal vacuum chambers that expose the suit to the temperatures and vacuum experienced in space. This testing will aid engineers in ensuring that the suit is safe and complies with NASA requirements.
Pioneering a New Era
The Axiom team continues to work closely with NASA ensuring the spacesuit will meet all the requirements for the Artemis III mission. Its experts are actively engaged in innovative work to develop and refine spacesuit technologies to ensure a high level of safety, reliability, and performance in the design.
The AxEMU program epitomizes how the commercial space industry is enabling non-traditional partnerships to enhance space exploration capabilities. Since being awarded its first Artemis task order in 2022, valued at $228 million, Axiom Space has capitalized on the public-private agreement with NASA, seeking out renowned experts in diverse industries to aid in developing and designing this next-generation spacesuit.
“We are pioneering a new era in space exploration where partnerships are imperative to the commercialization of space,” said Russell Ralston, Executive Vice President of Extravehicular Activity, Axiom Space. “Partnerships build a strong, cohesive team, enabling industry experts to provide cutting-edge technology, specialized products and services to drive innovation. For the first time, we are leveraging expertise in other industries to craft a better solution for space.”
“Our elite teams have redefined spacesuit development, establishing new pathways to innovative solutions and applying a state-of-the-art design approach for the AxEMU. We have broken the mold. The Axiom Space-Prada partnership has set a new foundational model for cross-industry collaboration, further expanding what’s possible in commercial space,” said Matt Ondler, Axiom Space President.
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Transcript
00:00:10 the Axiom team was very excited when we learned that we got the XC bass contract and to know that we're going to be a part of getting mankind back to the Moon is really exciting the Student Center used today were developed several decades ago and originally they were developed for the space shuttle and they're usually International Space Station today but if we want to go back
00:00:28 to the Moon then we need a new spacesuit spacesuit design has been really evolutionary for decades and we're kind of taking a larger leap we are changing it so it's dust tolerant so that you can walk far distances that you can help if your fellow crew member gets incapacitated the ability to bring them back with you so all these updates were more of a revolution than an evolution
00:00:50 of the current design I'm excited by some of the really new developments in technology that have been added in and I think it's going to be a great suit it is an unbelievable amount of effort from seamstresses to requirements Specialists to Engineers managers we have a range of skill sets and everyone is so proud to be doing what they're doing it's like a little bit of each of
00:01:19 us is going up there with the astronauts and a little bit of our mentors a little bit of our family like it's it's more than just ourselves right it's everyone before us and everyone after us so that's um you can definitely feel it that gives you Goosebumps right like that is and it hasn't sunk in yet and I don't know if it will ever sink in even
00:01:43 when it's happening and you're looking at the moon and you're like there's someone on the moon in an axiom suit like that is the dream please [Music] space is changing so fast right now and it's going to be such a great time to want to get into any aspect of the Space
00:02:28 Program whether you know as an engineer a designer an astronaut somebody you know stepping foot on another planet [Music] thank you
