Japanese shipping giant Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) is trialling space suits at sea (pictured above).
NYK has teamed with a Japanese fashion-tech brand called Moonrakers to see how its advanced clothing could work for crew at sea as well as shipyard workers.
Moonrakers, which works with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), merges aerospace-level materials with everyday apparel. Its signature fabric system, MOON-TECH, packs features such as sweat-absorption, quick-drying, anti-stain, antibacterial, UV-cut and stretch into minimalist designs.
NYK has recently targeted space exploration as a new source of revenue, obtaining an approval in principle this summer from ClassNK for the conceptual design of an offshore recovery system for reusable rockets, an initiative developed through the Space Strategy Fund at JAXA.
NYK now aims to carry out a demonstration test of this new vessel type in 2028, working with multiple partners, including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
NYK is not the only Japanese company to have trialled alternative uniforms at sea. Splash reported back in 2018 on Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) trialling specialised cooling-work suits (pictured below) for crewmembers, developed by Osaka-based Teijin, on one of its ships. The work uniforms were equipped with rechargeable cooling fans that draw in outside air and circulate it between the two layers of the uniform.
