In case NASA is planning to send astronauts on a journey back to the surface of the moon within 2024, it will require new spacesuits to put to use in lunar exploration. However, before the astronauts ever wear these suits on to the surface of the moon, they will take a test “walk” while wearing them in 2023 on the International Station of Space, as per the engineer who is backing this program.

The Artemis program of moon from NASA aims at landing the first-ever astronauts on the moon’s South Pole in 2024. However, the current design of spacesuits by the agency, known as the EMU or Unit of Extravehicular Mobility Unit, is designed to float spacewalks and is also termed as EVAs or activities of extra-vehicular nature. They are not designed to clamber around on the rocky surface of the moon.

The Project of Advanced Space Suits is an in-house effort from NASA and marks one of the several efforts at developing spacesuit attempted by the agency in the recent years, for developing ways of exploring deep space. As per a 2017 report from NASA’s Inspector General’s Office, backing the month of November 2016, the project focused its efforts to develop a brand-new series of EVA suits, now termed as xEMU. Thus far, NASA is still sticking to its initial plan of testing xEMU in the orbit in the year of 2023.

According to a September 11 statement by the spacesuit engineer for NASA Lindsay Aitchison at the Memorial Symposium of Wernher von Braun held at Huntsville, Alabama by the Astronautical Society of America, the organization has progressed as well as iterated significantly on this particular design. As a result, they currently are in possession of an extremely mature system in all respect. Till now, greater than 30 runs of the xEMU have occurred at the Laboratory of Neutral Buoyancy.