How SpaceX built a new spacesuit for Polaris Dawn's private spacewalk (video)

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"It's kind of like a suit of armor made of fabric."

SpaceX has given us a detailed look at their stylish and innovative new extravehicular activity suit ahead of it being worn during the Polaris Dawn mission's first-ever private spacewalk.

Two astronauts aboard the five-day SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission, which launched on Tuesday (Sept. 10), are due to perform the first commercial spacewalk on Mission Day 3, or Thursday (Sept. 12)

The SpaceX EVA suit, designed for extravehicular activities (EVAs, or spacewalks), is based on the familiar black-and-white intravehicular activity (IVA) spacesuit, but with enhancements and improvements in key areas to make it lightweight and unobtrusive, all while protecting astronauts in the unforgiving environment of outer space. "It's kind of like a suit of armor made of fabric," SpaceX principal spacesuit engineer Erik Kraus says in a new video the company posted to X.

SpaceX's new EVA suit undergoing testing.  (Image credit: Polaris Program / John Kraus)

New features, including enhanced mobility through new joints, a helmet and visor with a display, and a fabric-based material for ease of manufacturing, are detailed in the video.

While based on the IVA suit, the EVA suit's soft portions become rigid when pressurized, requiring flexure and rotational joints for ease of movement. It also has an added Faraday layer, or a conductive cage, around the suit that shields it from external electric fields.

Christ Trigg, SpaceX's senior manager for spacesuits, stated that another issue is thermal comfort for the crew during EVAs. The suit will be exposed to an extreme thermal environment and yet needs to ensure the suit's interior is comfortable and safe to touch.

The helmet features a heads-up display (HUD) with a transparent screen. This provides critical telemetry to the crew, including pressure, temperature, and relative humidity, without obstructing the astronaut's view. It also features coatings for astronaut safety.

"The EVA suit visor is made of polycarbonate and is coated with copper and Ico, or indium tenoxide," said Kraus in the video. "These two coatings together reflect the sun away from the crew, as well as reflecting infrared heat back to the crew when they are facing deep space."

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The suit was designed and built at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, with a focus on in-house manufacturing, says Maria Sundeen, manager of spacesuit fabrication. And, for ease of manufacturing, the team developed a new, fabric-based material.

Beyond the upcoming historic spacewalk, SpaceX has big ambitions for the suit. The company aims to improve its technology and make the suit more manufacturable with each generation.

"The ultimate goal is that you can put on the spacesuit and go out and get work done anywhere in the solar system and not feel like you're wearing anything more than you normally wear everyday," said Trigg.

Follow our Polaris Dawn live updates for the latest on the mission.

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Andrew Jones
Andrew Jones
Contributing Writer

Andrew is a freelance space journalist with a focus on reporting on China's rapidly growing space sector. He began writing for Space.com in 2019 and writes for SpaceNews, IEEE Spectrum, National Geographic, Sky & Telescope, New Scientist and others. Andrew first caught the space bug when, as a youngster, he saw Voyager images of other worlds in our solar system for the first time. Away from space, Andrew enjoys trail running in the forests of Finland. You can follow him on Twitter @AJ_FI.

3 Comments Comment from the forums
  • TomMariner
    Amazing -- SpaceX sees a technology they need and invents and commercializes it. I thought there was a bid out for like a billion dollars from NASA to develop a new space suit.

    My bet is that the FDA or EPA or FAA will find some reason why these suits cannot become the industry standard.
    Reply
  • ChrisA
    Admin said:
    SpaceX has given us a detailed look at their stylish and innovative new extravehicular activity suit ahead of it being worn during the Polaris Dawn mission's first-ever private spacewalk.

    How SpaceX built a new spacesuit for Polaris Dawn's private spacewalk (video) : Read more

    So apparently these new suits are now demonstrated and tested for exposure to space of the upper body for about 10 minutes. This is a start.

    I wish they would talk about what prevented more extensive use. The original plan was to fully exit the spacecraft and a longer duration. I wonder if it was thermal or mobility limits? Or perhaps the astronauts were not able to train for a longer EVA?

    Historically the first EVA was done by the Soviets and the problem was getting the guy back inside. The suit ballooned up and restricted mobility. Perhaps the memory of this caused them to be so cautious?
    Reply
  • Spuwho
    Perhaps there is a reason they went so high to do the EVA in those suits. Current LEO is littered with high energy space junk. A simple fleck of paint traveling 12,000 mph struck and cracked a Space Shuttle windshield once. (NASA thickened it after). So how much kinetic energy can those suits handle? Some have asked why the EVA was "partial" and not full, there were commentary that the open nose cap was used as a sort of shield to protect the walkers from micrometeoroids and space junk as they orbited.

    It would be interesting to hear what kind of tolerance those new suits have in this regard.
    Reply