There's far too little to 'inspire' kids anymore and I imagine far fewer kids saying they want to be astronauts. This does the double duty of involving the public even in a tiny way and of hopefully coming up with a design that moves people a bit as well.
Both good things in my book.
That said, I'd donate a month's paycheck if they remodeled it to use Buzz Lightyear's color scheme and design.
"Is the design that is selected going to fly to space?
No, as the Z-series is still in the prototype or non-flight phase. The cover layer of a non-flight suit, which is used for ground-based testing, serves as abrasion/snag protection, a cover for technical details, and to a lesser extent, aesthetics. For a flight suit which is actually used for a spacewalk, the cover layer performs many other important functions such as micrometeorite, thermal and radiation protection. These requirements drive selection of specific high-performance materials and design details that would preclude us from using many of the features you see in these options for the Z-2 suit. "
As often happens, an instance of designers mistaking their own taste for something that everyone will see as better.
http://wordlesstech.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/NASAs-Z-1...
http://www.businessinsider.com/dava-newmans-skintight-spaces...
Basically this is just them allowing people to have impact on what the next iteration looks like, not what the actual suit will look like.
Why couldn't it be used in space?
Not that it is consequential in either way, it's just even less consequential since you're voting on how the on earth trial suit will look, and it won't have any bearing on what the final suit looks like.
EDIT:
Looks like the suit is for ground testing only, though this would still apply if they're using it in the sunlight.
