Mars Spacesuit Debuts in Cratered Badlands
A prototype Mars spacesuit designed by 40 students from five North Dakota colleges was unveiled in a craterlike area surrounded by buttes in the North Dakota Badlands.
One of the student designers, Fabio Sau of Italy, was inside the suit for its unveiling in the Mars-like landscape near the town of Fryburg.
The suit, developed under a $100,000 grant from NASA, has a transparent helmet, a rigid upper body section and a backpack holding communications gear.
It is “essentially a self-contained spacecraft,” said project manager Pablo de Leon, an aerospace engineer at the University of North Dakota.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
