I Tested NASA's New Space Suit (Ft. Axiom Space)

This will be the next space suit on the moon. What can it do?

Only 12 people have ever walked on the moon and they all did it within just 4 years of each other. Then, for the last 50 years, no one has gone back… but that’s about to change.

Soon, astronauts will return to the moon to prepare for people to live there long-term and to get us ready to send the first humans to Mars. But to do it, they need to survive outside in space and work for hours in one of the most dangerous conditions a human will ever face. The problem is, our spacesuits for the Moon haven’t been updated in decades! But now, to make this next chapter in space possible, space suits are getting a major upgrade.

These new suits will give astronauts the superpower to do more, for longer… and I’m one of the first civilians to put one on.

In this video, we’re taking you behind the scenes to show how Axiom Space is designing, building, and testing NASA’s new space suits. I am going to put myself and this suit to the test, to give you a sneak peak into what it looks like, what it feels like, and how it could change what humanity can do in space...

Chapters:
0:00 Why NASA needs new spacesuits
01:28 NASA’s Artemis mission, explained
03:02 This is NASA’s new spacesuit
03:45 How you would die in space
05:46 Not all spacesuits are the same
07:04 Why spacesuits are so expensive
07:51 The new era of spaceflight
09:07 How astronauts use the bathroom
09:55 How astronauts scratch their face
10:48 How to put on a spacesuit
12:31 How a spacesuit protects you
13:36 How astronauts practice walking in space
14:33 What a pressurized spacesuit feels like
15:55 Why is NASA’s new spacesuit black and orange?
16:42 Why spacesuits are mostly handmade
18:02 How NASA’s new spacesuits fit more people
19:16 How much does NASA’s new spacesuit weigh?
19:45 Challenge 1: Collect a sample
21:07 Challenge 2: RUN
22:45 Challenge 3: Squat
23:26 Challenge 4: Kneel
24:10 Why spacesuits are huge if true
25:50 They’re also building a space station??

Bio:
Cleo Abram is an Emmy-nominated independent video journalist. On her show, Huge If True, Cleo explores complex technology topics with rigor and optimism, helping her audience understand the world around them and see positive futures they can help build. Before going independent, Cleo was a video producer for Vox. She wrote and directed the Coding and Diamonds episodes of Vox’s Netflix show, Explained. She produced videos for Vox’s YouTube channel, was the host and senior producer of Vox’s first ever daily show, Answered, and was co-host and producer of Vox’s YouTube Originals show, Glad You Asked.

Additional reading and watching:

Gear I use:
Camera: Sony A7SIII
Lens: Sony 16–35 mm F2.8 GM
Audio: Sennheiser SK AVX and Zoom H4N Pro

Music: Musicbed, Tom Fox

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Welcome to the joke down low:

How did the Space Teddy Bear cross the road?
Ewoked

Find a way to use “ewok” in a comment to let me know you’re a real one who made it to the end of the description :)

[MerchantIvoryfilms]

Fun Fact: As they said in the video "We don't make that many space suits..." is so true. My grandfather was a pilot, and was asked to fly one box for NASA, just one box, on a massive cargo plane. The box contained one of the spacesuits being flown back to Florida from the shuttle landing in CA. He and his co-pilot asked. "What? They don't trust us to fly them all back?" The reply they were given was "Its not that, we just can't afford to lose all the suits if you crash"

[Nakhaan]

Can you imagine soon, we'll have 4k videos of astronauts just casually working on the moon

[milokojjones]

To be honest, the fact that they made a suit in which an untrained civilian is able to perform all these simulated tasks is really impressive, like really really impressive and I think it's a good sign for the suits overall.

[surrealengineering]

Saying "I have a full mag" sound waaay cooler than the other thing.
That's smart naming.

[chuckwilliams]

The MAG obviously serves two roles; absorbency if you need to relieve yourself, and when you think you're too cool wearing an EV suit, you remember; "I'm wearing a diaper, " this ensures your head fits inside the helmet.

[NBTJacklyn]

The little “I got it” was so wholesome

[TopherMorrison]

In a world where so much stuff on the internet is negative and divisive, I just want you to know how refreshing it is to watch your videos. Thanks for making the world a little bit better in your unique way.

[Vventure]

My husband is the lead engineer for the M&P group at Axiom! Everyone I've met from there has been good people; a really fun, smart, dedicated crew for sure. SOOO jealous you got to get in the suit!!

[cailinanne]

12:23 so basically you’re not wearing a space suit, you’re _operating_ a space suit

[nemonomen]

22:35 That’s the world’s most expensive piñata.

[rceldib]

I was blessed twice in my life to operate in the NASA Space Station EVA suit for about four hours each time in the early days of designing, developing, fabricating and building the the Space Station hardware. First time at Marshal Space Flight Center in the Neutral Buoyancy Test Facility and later at the NASA Houston NBL. They were long days getting into the suit, acclimated then going into the water and working through the Timeline of events while attached to the end of the Canada Arm. At the NBL we were doing EVA operation on the Z1 Truss to Lab Ammonia Cable Tray working the tray and Cable Quick-Disconnects. We were also doing Battery Box ORU remove and replace operations. What an incredible opportunity to work with these fantastically capable engineers and techs and to later see how it all played out in space as the NASA astronauts assembled the real deal on orbit. Thanks to all the wonderful people who made this happen!

[scnt]

The snapping finger and going to space and in what order will a person die in that situation, was the most traumatizing yet cute animation I ever saw!

[bigzed]

Cleo, you have no idea how important this video is! Our excitement for Space has died down so much, and it's sad. The ammount of stuff we'll learn from Space Exploration will be marvelous. So thank you! This video was real fun :)

[williammatthews]

The glee behind "they let a youtuber in a space suit" makes me so happy for you

[shellahederah]

"In full earth gravity!?" Will be my next favorite quote for whatever i have to do, not only squats xDD

[RILDIGITAL]

The spacesuits look like an engineering marvel, and it's amazing how Axiom and NASA aim to make them more accessible and sustainable. This is undoubtedly a giant leap for mankind.

[TheGreatKrystoff]

I can hear Adam Savage screaming with jealousy from hundreds of miles away

[qdaniele]

Another misconception about what would happen of you were magicaly teleported to space without a spacesuit is that your blood would start to boil because the pressure would drop below the boiling point of water at body temperature.
That simply would never happen because your blood vessels (or skin and connecting tissue in general) are a lot stronger than you might think, they would stretch but not by much and definitely not enough to drop the blood pressure below water boiling point. Basically your skin would become your spacesuit, keeping yourself together.

Even embolism wouldn't be a problem because if you were able to quickly return to normal pressure (maybe repressurize a faulty airlock) they would disappear immediatly, and if you were to remain in a vacuum or near vacuum too long even then they would hardly matter as you would pass out and then die by hypoxia way before they would be able to do any damage.

We know all of this for sure because Jim LeBlanc accidentaly tested it for us in 1966 during a failed test for a new spacesuit in a vacuum chamber. He was exposed to a nearly perfect vacuum for at least 25 seconds and survived with just a temporary bad earache and no permanent damage at all.
Stanley Kubrick did his homeworks and knew of it when he was directing 2001 Space Odyssey in 1968, but apparently he was the only one as most other movies botch this things completely.

[danieltiema]

the kind of access you get is impressive. From X-59 to NASA Spacesuits. Dammmnn!!!

[mhm]

15:00 She actually made all of us hold our nose and blow through it 😂