Nasa tests new spacesuits for the next moon mission underwater

This is what astronauts will most likely be wearing when they next land on the Moon.

Nasa has been working hard to develop brand-new spacesuits ahead of plans for its next big mission to the lunar surface scheduled for 2024.

The mission, called Artemis 3, will mark the first time people have landed on the Moon in nearly 50 years.

The suits were recently tested underwater at the US space agency Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

The tests involve practising picking up Moon rocks and planting an American flag, with the underwater conditions designed to help astronauts prepare for working in low-gravity conditions.

But they will also be tested on dry land, at Johnson's rock yard - a large, outdoor area landscaped like the lunar surface.

The new suits are called xEMU, which stands for Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit.

It is the first new spacesuit Nasa has developed in 40 years and is quite different from the ones astronauts have been using until now.

That's because what astronauts need for a moonwalk is very different to what they need inside a spacecraft, for example the International Space Station.

Daren Welsh, who leads spacewalk tests, said: "We have experience with space station, but we need to determine how we're going to train the crew for surface operations during these specific missions."

The teams making the suits have had to think about how the suit can allow crew to get up and down a ladder or swing a hammer safely, and how to conduct successful moonwalks in different lighting conditions than the Apollo-era moonwalks.

The new suits are designed to make it much easier to walk, bend and squat when working on the Moon.

In addition to the main spacesuits, each Artemis astronaut will also get a special internal cooling garment with first designs now ready to be tested out.

Astronauts will wear a suit of orange fabric inside the spacecraft and a much bigger, mostly white suit on the lunar surface.

The crew survival suit, is designed to provide full life support for up to six days—a scenario that could be required, for example, if a meteorite punches a hole in the spacecraft's hull.

Under the Artemis mission, NASA plans to land on the Moon's South Pole in order to exploit its water ice, discovered in 2009.

They hope to be able to use it to support life on the moon's surface as well as for rocket propellant.