New NASA space suit design chosen by online poll

Guardian : NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems program is developing a new extravehicular-activity space suit called the Z series. The Z-1 prototype was revealed in November 2012 and has been used to test the design of the Z-2 , which is expected to be ready for testing in November 2014. NASA presented three “skins,” or exterior designs, in an online poll and asked the public to choose among them. Winning with 63% of the vote was the “Technology” design, which features bright panels reminiscent of the suits worn in the 1982 science fiction film Tron. The Z-2 will be tested in full vacuum, neutral buoyancy, and a simulated Martian environment. Although not itself space-ready, the Z-2 will be a major step toward NASA’s goal of having a new space suit available for the first astronauts to visit Mars.