(air pressurizing)
- Ooh! - You OK?
- Yeah. - All right.
- What happens if you fall over?
- Uh, it hurts. (laughs)
- OK, don't fall over.
Designing a spacesuit is an incredibly complicated process
combining knowledge of textiles, engineering,
biology, and atmospheric science.
That means there's no one size fits all for a suit.
Right now, astronauts going
to the International Space Station have a specialized suit
geared for spacewalks in lower Earth orbit,
but different suits will be needed
if we wanna go elsewhere in the solar system,
and they'll have to be tailored
to the place an astronaut is going.
Luckily, I found a place that will let me cosplay
as a future planetary explorer.
(low music)
We're here in the great State of North Dakota.
The university here has a human spaceflight laboratory
where they make prototype spacesuits
for going to the moon or to Mars,
and they said I get to try one on.
This is Pablo de León, a professor here
at the University of North Dakota, and the head of the lab.
And that lifeless form on the table between us,
that's a prototype spacesuit for Mars
called the NDX-1 that I'm about to try on.
It's been tested out in some extreme environments
including Antarctica, and simulated Martian surfaces
at NASA, so it's the real deal.
But first, I wanna know what it takes to make a spacesuit.
- [Pablo] It's very difficult to contain a human
inside basically what is a bag full of oxygen.
- [Loren] Yeah. - So, you know,
you have to create it in a way that is mobile,
that is comfortable for the astronaut,
that is safe and will protect him or her of the vacuum,
and all the other dangers that you have in space.
When you design a suit, you have to take
into consideration of the environment we're in.
You have to study that particular place.
For example, we use a Mars simulant
that simulates the characteristics of Mars soil,
because we don't have any Mars soil yet here on Earth.
So basically, it's dust, gravity, atmospheric composition.
- [Loren Voiceover] Mars may be cold, but it can definitely
get hot inside a confined suit.
In order to control temperature,
astronauts use a full body liquid cooling garment.
This garment contains tubing that circulates
cold water, removing heat from the skin.
It's something astronauts already use
when they do their spacewalks.
As you can imagine, it's slightly uncomfortable
but will prevent you from overheating.
I won't be wearing this today, but I will need
to change my clothes before I get suited up.
All right.
Suit me up. (laughs) - All right.
- [Loren Voiceover] There are some restrictions
when it comes to filming someone getting into a spacesuit.
We weren't allowed to film me actually putting it on
because of some international regulations.
I didn't really mind, because getting into such a bulky suit
isn't exactly the most graceful experience.
Clearly this is a three/four person job. (laughs)
I'm assuming it's gonna be not fun on Mars, either.
Just doing it on Earth is a bit of a chore.
The first thing you feel is how heavy and restricting it is.
It's about 30 pounds here on Earth
that you're mostly carrying on your shoulders.
Fortunately, Mars has one-third of the gravity of Earth,
so the suit would feel slightly lighter over there.
Plus, it didn't fit me exactly right,
so my fingers didn't quite reach all the way
in the gloves, and then they pressurized it,
which made things even more difficult.
- You ready? - I'm ready.
(air pressurizing) Woo!
Oh, ears are definitely popping.
How does anyone move in this at all?
(laughs)
Being in a bag of Earth's atmosphere
feels a bit like walking in a giant balloon.
I was getting a workout just trying
to keep my arms where I wanted them.
It proved challenging when it came
to performing simple tasks.
Oh, yeah! (laughs) - There you go.
OK, you got it.
- Yeah, that was a piece of cake.
(laughs)
It's very clear that roaming around Mars
won't be as easy as going for a simple walk,
but all of this discomfort is just
a necessary byproduct of keeping astronauts alive,
and it's quite an engineering feat
that I was able to perform tasks
in a suit that's designed to protect me
from an alien environment like Mars.
- And you are out. - Oh, my goodness.
- You survived.
OK, we'll get you out of the suit, all right?
- Let's just say Mars will not
be comfortable. (laughs)
After breaking out of the Mars suit
and wiping off the sweat, I was ready to head
to my next location, the moon.
Well, sort of.
We tried on the Martian spacesuit,
which was intense, so we've come to a much easier
environment, the lunar surface,
which is only one-sixth the Earth's gravity.
Basically, I'm going to start my day
on the moon in the lunar habitat,
make my way through this tube to the rover,
and then dive into this suit and go for a moonwalk.
The cool thing about this is that this is the only place
that you can go from habitat to a rover
to a suit and then boots on the ground
in one, seamless system, so the fact
that we can try this out today is pretty cool.
Here we are in the habitat, and you've got your basics.
You know, place to sleep, a fridge, kitchen,
but right now, I need to leave the hab and go to my rover.
It's a bit like Discovery Zone.
(soft energetic music)
All right, now we are in the rover.
(laughs) But I'm not driving today.
I need to get in my suit.
OK. - There you go.
Let me know when you reach the end of the boots.
- [Loren Voiceover] I needed a bit of help to get my legs
into place, and then I was ready
to pull the release and have a bit of fun.
- No, just one, there you go. - Woo!
- And there you are. - Step down.
- Step down. (laughs)
All right. - All right.
Frolicking in the lunar suit was a bit easier at first.
It was a training suit, so it weighed less
and I wasn't fully pressurized.
Also, this suit was slightly more spacious,
making it easier to grip and maneuver.
But after a while, it still got incredibly hot,
and doing sprints tired me out.
It's time for a nap. (laughs)
I have a new respect for people who go to space now, oof.
My main takeaway from all of this,
designing a spacesuit means thinking
about thousands of different problems
that don't immediately come to mind,
and floating around the outside of the station
requires a completely different type of suit
than one for a Mars expedition, or one for a lunar base.
Plus, a suit that can keep people alive
in these extreme environments isn't
exactly the easiest thing to work in.
To be fair, I had Earth's atmosphere
and gravity working against me,
but it's clear I need a lot more training
before I can work for hours in a spacesuit.
Hey, everyone, this video was part of my series, Spacecraft,
which you may have already seen
on our other YouTube channel, the Verge,
but we thought you might like to see it here.
However, you should be subscribed to both channels
'cause we have some exciting spacecraft news
coming out soon, stay tuned.