Delaware firm has a hand in designing new spacesuits
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Rocky impersonator and actor John Monforto in character. (Emma Lee/for NewsWorks)
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NASA is asking for advice from the public to determine the look and design of the next generation of spacesuits.
Despite its location in Kent County, Delaware, far from Cape Canaveral, Florida and Johnson Space Center in Texas, ILC Dover has had a major impact on the U.S. space program as far back as the Apollo program. Now, the company’s contributed a design that could some day be worn by astronauts who may walk on Mars.
NASA is holding a contest to determine what the new suits, dubbed the Z-2, should look like. One of the suits up for a vote was designed by ILC Dover. Another design was contributed by the Philadelphia University School of Design.
The Z-2 will be the first surface specific planetary mobility suit that will be tested in a full vacuum. The Z-2 will replace the previous Z-1 suit, which had been named one of the best inventions of 2012 by Time magazine.
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