photo #8900984

Astronaut Peggy WhitsonThe Artemis missions are objectively much more difficult than the Apollo missions. Landing on the lunar south pole presents many challenges not present for the Apollo crews, including the need for a more advanced spacesuit that can mitigate single point failures. The Apollo suits had minimal backups for critical systems; a single failure in life support could have been catastrophic. The #AxEMU is being designed with astronaut safety as the top priority, incorporating redundant backups for the most vital life-support components.