NASA’s Moon Mission: See the new spacesuit the Artemis astronauts will wear

After more than 50 years of quiet, the moon is about to become a destination for space travelers again.

The public will soon learn the names of the four astronauts who will venture around the moon next year aboard the Artemis II rocket. The three Americans and one Canadian, who will be revealed on April 3 by NASA, will fly farther than anyone who has flown during the Apollo missions.

The selection process is kept secret, but the astronaut pool is more diverse than it was decades ago.

As stated in Tom Wolfe’s 1979 book about the space race, every crew member must embody “the right things”—demonstrating the traits of a good teammate and effective communicator who expects the unexpected.

And when the Artemis III astronauts take it a step further by landing on the moon perhaps as soon as 2025, they’re going to need something else: the right suit.

Gravity defying

This week, NASA and Axiom Space unveiled the new spacesuit that will be worn by the first woman and first person of color to walk on the moon.

The Artemis 3 crew will aim to land at the moon’s unexplored south pole, home to frozen, permanently shadowed regions where ice has remained frozen for billions of years.

The reimagined suit allows for a greater range of motion and includes additionally insulated boots and other innovations that make it easier to explore the lunar surface. It’s about time The spacesuits worn by American astronauts haven’t been upgraded since the space shuttle program was active.

The revealed Axiom Space prototype of the new design appears in black, blue and orange. However, the actual suits will be traditional white from the Apollo days to protect the astronauts from wild temperature fluctuations.

Dino mite!

Dinosaurs were some of the largest creatures that ever roamed the Earth. Now, researchers have discovered one that broke records among the giants.

A dinosaur called Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum once enjoyed munching on leafy greens from trees — which it could easily reach because the creature had a massive neck longer than a school bus.

The sauropod’s 49.5-foot (15.1-meter) neck, the longest of any known dinosaur, allowed it to stand still and eat for hours.

But how could Mamenchisaurus not feel weighed down by such an extreme feature? The secret was in her air-filled bones.

wonder

An amazing species of orchid has been discovered blooming in rural gardens and suburban balcony plantings in Japan.

The rare find, with delicate pink and white blooms that look as if spun from glass, belongs to a group of orchids called Spiranthes, or “ladies’ tufts.”

Scientists were able to tell this orchid apart from other members of its family because the flowers open early and the plant has smooth rather than hairy stems.

other worlds

When a NASA mission scientist recently revisited images of Venus from 1991 taken by the Magellan spacecraft, he noticed something unusual. Two images of the same feature appeared widely spaced apart.

Eight months after Magellan’s first pass, the vent in one of the largest volcanoes on the planet had nearly doubled in size and filled with a lava lake.

The changeover reveals unprecedented evidence of volcanic activity on the surface of Venus, something future missions could track within a decade.

Meanwhile, the search for water on Mars has turned up signs of a recent glacier that once existed near the Red Planet’s warm equator.

The glacier no longer exists. But researchers have discovered a crustal layer of salt that has preserved amazing details of the chunk of ice – and it’s in an area where humans may eventually land on Mars.

ocean secrets

“Beware of The Blob, he’s crawling / And jumping and sliding and sliding / Across the floor!”

These dramatic lyrics are from the theme song to the 1958 movie “The Blob,” but they also serve as a warning of a giant blob making its way across the ocean. A tangle of marine algae sargassum stretches more than 5,000 miles (8,047 kilometers) into the Atlantic Ocean.

The floating point—which may be the largest ever—could dump clumps of smelly seaweed on Florida beaches and elsewhere along the Gulf of Mexico this summer.

This unprecedented phenomenon could pose grave risks to both humans and ocean life.

Mass of seagrass makes a great habitat for fish and other sea creatures, but it can also create dead zones – and even release toxic gases once it reaches land.

discoveries

Prepare to have your mind blown:

– This may be scarier than the point. Scientists have found “terrifying” rocks made of plastic debris on the Brazilian volcanic island of Trinidad.

The remains of a Roman aristocracy were found buried with their jewels in a lead-lined coffin after archaeologists discovered a hidden tomb in northern England.

The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a new, sparkling image of a rare star about to explode.

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