Dear NASA: Please Tell Us More About Your New #Moon2024 Suit
What will astronauts wear on moonwalks in 5 years? We're currently working on options for our #Moon2024 mission + beyond. We'll have a transition suit for 1st mission + modern spacesuit designs for astronauts to explore the lunar surface & help create our sustainable lunar future pic.twitter.com/HhDyvIC1L1
— NASA (@NASA) May 1, 2019
Keith’s note: I sent this request to NASA PAO: With regard to this @NASA tweet:
“Will the lunar EVA suit to be used on the lunar surface in 2024 be developed in-house at NASA or will it be procured through the standard NASA contracting process from an external vendor? Can you provide me with the name of that spacesuit, where it is being developed, the contractor(s) involved in its development, what the budget is for its development, and when specifications for that suit will be ready for inclusion in an RFP? If there is no specific suit under development, can you describe the procurement strategy i.e. when will a down select of concepts be made, when will an RFP will be issued, when will test models will be delivered for testing, and when will the suit be first used in space?”
Well, that’s a pretty content-free tweet from NASA. I probably shouldn’t be offering advice about asking NASA questions, but you might want to ask something more specific. For example, “What are the level 1 and level 2 requirements (if level 2 requirements have been defined) for the spacesuit(s) mentioned in the @NASA tweet dated 1:16 PM – May 1, 2019.” That would give them something specific to look up, and probably not find. I get the feeling that they don’t even have well-defined level 1 requirements for these suits.
5 years to develop and manufacture lunar suits? Sounds doable to me, I wouldn’t even consider it a rush job.
So, Keith, is the tone of your remarks intended to imply the allegation that there is no procurement program for this suit at all and that it doesn’t actually exist on paper or anywhere else except this painting?
I don’t know what Keith is implying, but there was a report by the Office of the Inspector General on the subject, just over a year ago. At the time, there were no plans for procurement of a flight article and there was no clear concept of what the requirements for a flight article would be. The report recommended, and NASA agreed to, do three studies into what they actually wanted. I don’t know if the reports were completed, but one key issue was whether the suits would be for use in space, on the Moon or on Mars. Since we’ve seen changes on that, within the last year, I suspect the requirements are still in limbo.
Somebody paid the artist from someone’s budget, but if that is all that’s been done with it in a year, then maybe someone should have a look-see.
The OIG report said NASA needed to study three specific things before the can make up their minds and decide what to actually do. NASA’s official response, which the OIG considered completely satisfactory and which was signed by Mr. Gerstenmaier, basically said they agreed and would do those studies. Since they’ve had a year, I assume those are done. But probably made moot by orders to go to the Moon, not Mars, and do so by 2024.