NASA decides on crowdsourced Tron look for Mars Z-2 spacesuit

.related-stories { display: none !important; } NASA announced today that it has finalized the look for its new Mars-bound Z-2 space suit. The design was selected by the public in a vote, and the winning design was one of three showcased by the agency.

The new suit is the latest in NASA's Z-series of suits. These are a far cry from the simple pressure suits worn by the Mercury astronauts in the 1950s—today's suits aren't so much suits as person-shaped spaceships. The Z-series suits are being designed to function both in space and also on the ground on other worlds, most notably the moon and Mars.

The major design focuses of the Z-series, and the Z-2 in particular, are mobility and ease of use. Since the earliest days of space travel, suited astronauts needed to cope with the tremendous physical burden of working inside what is essentially a rigid pressurized balloon; an air-filled space suit resists bending, and multi-hour spacewalks can be exhausting. Future suits like the Z-series try to help out their occupants with new materials and clever joint designs, not to mention by allowing astronauts to vary their pressurization level.