National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s officials announced the decision to offer the contract of designing, developing and testing the agency’s new set of spacesuits to Oceaneering International Inc. of Houston, Texas. The new generation is also known as the Constellation Space Suit System.

Two other companies, United Technologies Corp. and Connecticut, were also considered for the $184 million development process which is expected to provide its first results around September 2014. During the collaboration’s first six years, Oceaneering will engage in the development of suits needed for the launch and re-entry of the new Orion spacecraft and also for the contingency Extravehicular Activity. In the event that everything goes according to plan, the contract offers the possibility for building additional suits needed for the upcoming lunar surface activities.

The moon missions demand a new design for the space suits, as the older versions were made strictly for weightlessness scenarios and the walking matter was left out. According to Glenn Lutz, project manager for the spacesuit system at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, who was quoted by Reuters, the astronauts on the moon will be in need of lighter-weight suits which will allow bending and also offer high maneuverability.

Taking into consideration the fact that the last time astronauts walked on the moon, during NASA’s Apollo 17 mission, the year was 1972, an update can certainly be considered a good idea and will surely help in the upcoming mission’s success.

Some of the requested general features of the new CSSS point out that it should be operationally efficient, simple to maintain without any useless add-ons and made out of materials proved to be highly reliable.

Oceaneering International Inc. was founded in 1964 and deals with applied technology, offering engineering services and hardware for several domains such as marine and space environments.