Elon Musk has offered a glimpse of the spacesuit that could clothe those journeying on his company's attempted mission to Mars.
The SpaceX founder and CEO revealed a single photograph of the suit design on his Instagram account today, saying that more details would soon follow.
Musk, who is also the co-founder and CEO of electric car brand Tesla, accompanied the image with a caption explaining the suit was a working prototype and not just a mock-up.
He said that a key challenge of the design process had been creating a functional suit that had the right aesthetic.
"First picture of SpaceX spacesuit. More in days to follow," he wrote. "Worth noting that this actually works (not a mockup). Already tested to double vacuum pressure. Was incredibly hard to balance esthetics [sic] and function. Easy to do either separately." The image shows a minimal white spacesuit with grey contrast panels and piping. An American flag is the only apparent marking, appearing on the right shoulder.

A post shared by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Aug 23, 2017 at 12:59am PDT

Musk is attempting a number of interplanetary manned missions with his company SpaceX ? short for Space Exploration Technologies Corporation. A key goal of the aerospace manufacturer is to make it to Mars, with the view to establishing human habitation.
Musk has previously presented a timeline for creating a self-sustaining city on the Red Planet by 2022, saying that interplanetary colonisation was necessary...