Stylin’ and Survivin' on Mars
The space suit is torn between humanity’s two chief desires: exploration and protection. None more so than the one some of us will be wearing on Mars—which could determine astronauts’ survival while farther from Earth than humans have ever traveled before. But what people end up wearing on Mars is not just about being protected: What’s the point of going all the way to the red planet if we can’t act as humans do? We need to be able to bend down on one knee to collect a rock sample, or use our uniquely opposable thumbs to grip a tool and make a repair.
Space suits are as important as thruster types and rocket fuels—and maybe more so—for the eventual success of a mission to Mars. After all, the suit’s capabilities and limitations will determine what kind of work we can do once we have gone to all the trouble of getting there, says Dr. Sheyna Gifford, who lived for eight months in the Mars simulation HI-SEAS IV atop Hawaii’s Mauna Kea and has tested suits of various kinds. A good space suit is like a personal space ship: It must keep you alive but also help you live, says Gifford. It has to
