"Crew members traveling to the lunar surface on NASA's Artemis missions should be gearing up for a grind. They will wear heavier spacesuits than those worn by the Apollo astronauts, and NASA will ask them to do more than the first Moonwalkers did more than 50 years ago. The Moonwalking experience will amount to an "extreme physical event" for crews selected for the Artemis program's first lunar landings, a former NASA astronaut told a panel of researchers, physicians, and engineers convened by the National Academies."
"Scientists and astronauts have come to understand many of these effects after a quarter-century of continuous human presence on the International Space Station. But the Moon is different in a few important ways. The Moon is outside the protection of the Earth's magnetosphere, lunar dust is pervasive, and the Moon has partial gravity, about one-sixth as strong as the pull we feel on Earth."
Artemis lunar surface missions will require heavier and more capable spacesuits and will involve more demanding extravehicular activity than Apollo-era missions. Lunar surface operations constitute an extreme physical event that increases risk of radiation exposure, muscle and bone atrophy, and reduced cardiovascular and immune function. The Moon lies outside Earth's magnetosphere, has pervasive abrasive dust, and presents partial gravity about one-sixth of Earth's, all complicating crew health and EVA performance. NASA awarded Axiom Space a $228 million fixed-price contract to develop commercial pressurized suits for Artemis III, currently targeted for late 2028 but dependent on suit readiness and new human-rated landers.
Read at Ars Technica
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