In an exquisite amalgamation of fashion and technology, NASA astronauts bound for the 2025 Moon Mission will be donning space suits designed by the epitome of luxury fashion, the Italian house of Prada. Prada would be offering their design expertise for the ambitious project, in an intriguing collaboration with the private space company, Axiom Space.
Axiom Space, in their official communique, expressed faith in Prada for their proficient insight into materials and manufacturing. An anonymous astronaut revealed to the BBC that he viewed Prada as ingenious contenders for this design challenge, asserting that the fashion house has gained a wealth of experience not only from Milan’s high-end fashion runways but also from their active involvement in the America’s Cup sailing competition.
Professor Jeffrey Hoffman, a distinguished astronaut having executed four spacewalks in the course of five NASA missions, voiced that Prada’s wide-ranging experience with various composite fabrics might be harnessed into valuable technical contributions to the space suit’s exterior layers. Yet, he cautioned that astronaut attire would not indulge in fancy aesthetics, stressing that maintaining an optimum thermal environment is a critical aspect of space suit design.
A spacesuit, as he detailed, is essentially a miniature spacecraft required to provide essential life-support functions such as pressure, oxygen and temperature regulation. Made meticulously to meet the fundamental requirements, the new design weighs 55kg, providing an improved fit particularly favourable to female space travellers.
Articulating their vision in a press statement, Artemis and Prada revealed their plans to merge “innovative technologies and design” to foster “greater exploration of the lunar surface than ever before”.
The third installment of Artemis missions, which will feature Prada’s designs, will succeed Artemis 2, an expedition slated for a lunar circumnavigation, projected to take place in late 2024 or early in 2025.
