New designs for a spacesuit glove have been needed for quite some time. And spacewalks of the future will be done in super high-tech spacesuits that are equipped with robot controlling gloves. That way, the astronaut can have charge of devices such as drones by moving their fingers. It will make securing landing sites ahead or checking out dangerous/impracticable locations for humans much simpler.
The futuristic glove is an ESA-funded independent project derived from the space agency’s two-year Pextex project, which is aimed at finding new spacesuit materials. The prototype glove was developed by a French company called Comex and designed by Agatha Medioni. It incorporates new gadgets meant to facilitate moon missions.
Spacesuits are remarkably complex pieces of technology already. They are essentially miniature spaceships in and of themselves – some even having their own integrated propulsion systems. All of them are incredibly complex, including the apparatus needed to protect and support the astronaut in the brutal environments of space. Nevertheless, they are still far from perfect even though they have been under constant development for almost a century now.
Among the most complicated components of a spacesuit is the gloves. They have to be flexible enough that the wearer can bend their fingers and work safely while also being strong enough to maintain an Earth-like atmosphere inside. Modern space gloves are nowhere near perfect. So, ESA is focusing on redesigning them to address the problems that make today’s gloves so clumsy and uncomfortable.
What the team created is a pair of gloves that protect an astronaut’s hands from the vacuum with the bonus of three additional new functions. One, they can control a lunar rover or a Martian drone with gestures alone. Two, they have an integrated distance measuring laser light that can tell the astronaut how far away something is. And three, its equipped with a display that shows the status of supplies like oxygen levels. The last feature is a significant improvement in current spacesuits, a screen on the torso requiring the astronauts to use a mirror on their wrist to check levels.
In the future, missions to the moon will become more frequent as humans aim to establish a permanent presence on the moon. Meaning, spacesuits will be worn for more extended periods, and more often than they have been up to now. With this in mind, the Pextex project aims to identify and test advanced textiles capable of withstanding such use. Some bonus features for future European spacesuit materials in the works include energy harvesting, integrated sensors, self-repair, robot control, and displays.
