NASA Reveals the 'Z-Series' Spacesuit Platform for Future Mars Missions

NASA let you decide, and now the results are in. The space agency opened a public vote for the development of their latest "Z-series" spacesuit that will be used by astronauts during the first-ever mission to Mars, and the finally tally has been taken. 

The voting ended on April 30 and NASA tallied up the votes to see which of the three spacesuit models would begin development for its first prototype. The "Z-series" spacesuits offered three different styles: Biomimicry, Technology, and Trends in Society.

It's newest features are among firsts for spacesuit design, which include "first surface-specific planetary mobility suit to be tested in full vacuum; first used to 3D human laser scans and 3D-printed hardware for suit development and sizing; most advanced use of impact resistant composite structures on a suit upper and lower torso system; first integration of the suit-port concept with a hard upper torso suit structure; and most conformal and re-sizable hard upper torso suit built to date," according to the NASA website.

Those are the overall features that each suit style possesses, and after months of voting, 63% of the public chose the Technology style, followed by 22.7% for Biomimicry, and 14% for Trends in Society. Technology took 147,000 of the 233,000 votes.

Each of the styles for the Z-series suits had different features aside from the previously mentioned ones that NASA announced. The Technology style uses Luminex wire and light-emitting patches to help better identify crew members (with electroluminescent wire and patches across the upper and lower torso) as well as collapsing pleats for mobility and highlighted movement.

The suit development project is being conducted by the Advanced Exploration Systems Division, which is responsible for new technologies for future human missions beyond Earth orbit. The Technology design will be incorporated into the final version of the Z-2 suit and will be ready for testing by November of this year.

You can read more about the Z-series spacesuit and the Technology design on the NASA website.