DIY Duo Craft Spacesuits From Gowanus Studio

Many neighbors wouldn't be surprised to spot someone wearing a hazmat suit along the Gowanus Canal, a bona fide Superfund site. But would anyone ever guess that right around the corner two individuals are creating a new prototype for one-piece articles meant to be worn on the Moon? 

In an article posted on Wired.com Monday, author David Mosher interviewed artist and designer Ted Southern, along with his partner Nikolay Moiseev, a Russian mechanical engineer. Together, the pair are the founders of Final Frontier Design, a startup company based out of a small Gowanus studio "that hopes to craft affordable yet highly capable spacesuits for a burgeoning commerical spaceflight industry," as described in the article.

"We think we can offer real improvement in terms of both performance and cost,” Southern told Wired, such as material that reacts and puffs out under pressure, creating fluid movement.

Having met at a 2007 NASA competition to design a new spacesuit glove, the duo were inspired by their second-place $100,000 win in 2009 to move on to the greater challenge of spacesuits themselves.

Since then, they have launched a $20,000 Kickstarter campaign to develop a“3G” spacesuit. If they reach their goal, they’ll then create a prototype "to vie for NASA’s picky certification," Mosher wrote.

Learn more and view the out-of-this-world photos of the suit shown in the gallery on Wired.com.

Would you ever pay to travel to outer space? And, if so, would you prefer wearing a suit made in Brooklyn?