How does Elon Musk’s spacesuit design stack up against Nasa's?

Elon Musk has unveiled the first glimpse of the spacesuit astronauts will wear aboard his SpaceX Dragon Capsule. The suits, revealed in an Instagram post, look nothing like the clumsy, bulky spacesuits we are used to. Instead, it seems future Mars colonists will make their way to the red planet in style and comfort.

Since the start of space exploration, the needs of astronauts have changed dramatically. Instead of just needing to float outside the space station, future astronauts, and those on board the Dragon Capsule, will be heading to Mars where they will have to walk around the planet in the suit. Developments in technology will mean spacesuits can be easier to walk around in, and more practical for everyday use.

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In some ways, Elon Musk’s new suit most closely resembles the first ever Nasa spacesuit. During the Mercury space programme, which ran from 1958 to 1963, astronauts did not leave their spaceships so the first suits were much less bulky than those used in Apollo. The first Nasa astronauts did not need to carry oxygen or have protection from the rocky terrain of the Moon. Because of this, their suits were thinner, with much smaller helmets.

Marrying practicality and style seems to have been an important factor when designing the SpaceX suit. Musk emphasised that the equipment works and has already been tested to double vacuum pressure. “Was incredibly hard to balance aesthetics and function,” Elon Musk’s Instagram post said. “Easy to do either separately.”

The SpaceX suit looks even sleeker than Nasa’s Z-2 suit, the next generation of astronaut clothing it revealed in 2015. The Z-2 looks thinner than its predecessor, the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU), which first flew in 1981 and is still used on board the International Space Station (ISS). But compared to Musk’s design, even the future Nasa suits look cumbersome.

A report in April this year showed Nasa is running out of EMUs, and might not have enough to keep its team going until the ISS is decommissioned, which at the moment will be in 2024. “Nasa is assessing the feasibility of extending ISS operations to 2028,” the report says. “Although Nasa is considering using the existing spacesuits for ISS Extravehicular Activity until then, it has also begun to develop next-generation spacesuit technologies that could be tested on the ISS by 2023 and potentially replace the EMU.”

In January this year, Boeing revealed its ‘Boeing Blue’ spacesuit, to be worn on board the Starliner space capsule, which looks more similar in its sleek design to the new SpaceX suit. Both designs resemble the kind of spacesuit you might expect to see in a futuristic space film.

When it comes to space travel, reality and science fiction have always overlapped. Janty Yates, a costumer designer for film and television, says it is possible Musk’s team was inspired by Hollywood when designing the new suit. The biggest difference, she says, is that Musk’s suit design is much simpler and more restrained than the suits that appear in Hollywood films.

Yates is no stranger to spacesuits. Working with director Ridley Scott, she has designed six spacesuits for the films Prometheus, **, and this year’s Alien: Covenant.

“I think it is very elegant and I admire its clean lines,” Yates says of Musk's spacesuit design. And while her designs only had to let actors breathe, record sounds and keep their faces lit, Musk's challenge is rather greater. “As Elon Musk has said, it's been tested twice so kudos to him that he has been able to combine elegance with practicality.”

This article was originally published by WIRED UK