The Italian luxury fashion brand Prada announced its collaboration with Axiom Space to design the spacesuits for NASA's 2025 Artemis III mission.
Prada's engineers will work alongside the Axiom Space Systems team throughout the design process to develop materials and design features that will protect the astronauts against potential environmental problems while in space and in the lunar environment. It will also be the first lunar mission to place a woman on the moon.
According to Professor Jeffrey Hoffman, who flew five Nasa missions and has carried out four spacewalks said that "a spacesuit is really like a miniature spacecraft. It has to provide pressure, and oxygen, and keep you at a reasonable temperature."
In a press release, Artemis and Prada said they would use "innovative technologies and design" to allow "greater exploration of the lunar surface than ever before".
Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada Group Marketing Director, said in a statement that “We are honored to be a part of this historic mission with Axiom Space. Our decades of experimentation, cutting-edge technology and design know-how – which started back in the ‘90s with Luna Rossa challenging for the America’s cup – will now be applied to the design of a spacesuit for the Artemis era.
It is a true celebration of the power of human creativity and innovation to advance civilization.”
The Artemis 3 mission will be the first time a crew has landed on the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972 and will have the first female to land on the Moon in the crew - Christina Koch.
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