Prada and Axiom Craft a Precision Cooling Layer for the Next Moonwalkers

Engineers as well as designers from Axiom Space and Prada pulled back the curtain last weekend in New York on the inner layer that will sit closest to astronauts during future lunar surface work. The garment forms a key piece of the AxEMU spacesuit developed for NASA’s Artemis program. Astronauts step into this form-fitting piece first. Light gray fabric stretches across the body in a streamlined silhouette while clear tubing traces deliberate paths over the torso, arms, and legs. A single red stripe runs down one sleeve as a quiet nod to Prada’s activewear roots.

Water flows through the primary network of tubes, absorbing heat from the astronaut’s muscles. That warmed liquid then travels to the portable life support system strapped to the astronaut’s back, where it releases its heat into space. Meanwhile, an entirely distinct system supplies new oxygen to the helmet and collects exhaled carbon dioxide, which is then cleaned and reused. In fact, added redundancy adds another layer of protection: a second, fully operational cooling loop runs parallel to the first. If the main system fails, the backup system takes over seamlessly, ensuring that temperature control is never disrupted during one of these excursions.

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Prada contributed decades of expertise in high-end textiles, unique knitting processes, and precision garment manufacturing to this project. Axiom offered aerospace expertise, life support integration, and 3D modeling tools that designed each tube route to improve cooling efficiency while allowing the wearer to move freely. The two teams worked back and forth through several different models, determining which materials performed best in certain scenarios and on different body types. A set of connectors at the waist connects the garment’s tubes directly to the rest of the suit’s systems. The entire design is suitable for eight-hour spacewalks and is built to be reused over long-duration missions, thanks to specific fibers selected with Prada’s involvement.

This suit’s inner layer outperforms the spacesuits currently deployed on the International Space Station. The earlier designs just did not have that level of built-in backup cooling, and the degree of customisation available with these newer suits is a huge advantage. Materials were also chosen to solve specific issues connected with the lunar environment, such as plasma interactions, which prior suits were never designed to handle. Axiom Space was awarded a contract from NASA to develop these suits several years ago. The qualification gear is presently being tested on the ground, with an in-space demonstration scheduled for next year, and the company is on track to support crewed trips to the lunar surface during the Artemis IV mission later this decade.
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