Developing Spacesuits for NASA-Part I
“The Constellation Program mission requires two spacesuit system configurations to meet the requirements of Orion missions to the space station and to the moon. Configuration One will support dynamic events such as launch and landing operations; contingency intravehicular activity (IVA) during critical mission events; off-nominal events such as loss of pressurization of the Orion crew compartment; and microgravity EVAs for contingency operations.”
“The Constellation spacesuit’s Configuration Two will build upon Configuration One and will support lunar surface operations. While preparing to walk on the moon, the astronauts will construct Configuration Two by replacing elements of Configuration One with elements specialized for surface operations” Credit: NASA
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With so much attention on the Phoenix lander on Mars and the developments being undertaken on the International Space Station, the Moon has taken a serious backseat—rather odd as it has been given a first priority ticket with fundings from our government. But back on track with the lunar developments is the creation of a new spacesuit specifically designed for our astronauts when returning to the Moon in the near future, while also used when transporting to the International Space Station until the contract ends.
The company Oceaneering International Inc. of Houston, Texas, has been awarded a contract for the development and production of a new spacesuit system—focusing on the Constellation Program voyages to the International Space Station first and then by 2020, to the Moon’s surface. According to NASA, several subcontractors in use by Oceaneering are: Air-Lock Inc. of Milford, Conn., David Clark Co. of Worcester, Mass., Cimarron Software Services Inc. of Houston, Harris Corporation of Palm Bay, Fla., Honeywell International Inc. of Glendale, Ariz., Paragon Space Development Corp. of Tucson, Ariz., and United Space Alliance of Houston.
The two spacesuit system required for the Constellation Program mission is to be considered a self-contained, one-person spacecraft in itself. It is being designed to protect each and every astronaut from the hostile environment of deep space and the lunar surface, while also allowing them to work in unknown environments safely, considered by NASA to be the crew’s “last line of defense” once they are out of their space vehicle, habitat, or crew exploration vehicle.
The present spacesuits that the astronauts are wearing are not safe for several exploratory missions:
• Apollo Extravehicular Mobility Unit
• Advanced Crew Escape Suit
• Space Shuttle/International Space Station Extravehicular Mobility Unit
For a spacesuit that is pressurized to meet long-term Exploration requirements, it must meet all capability requirements and improve reliability. Yet it must also improve logistics and maintenance for the crewmembers, reducing life cycle costs.
This entry was posted on Saturday, June 14th, 2008 at 8:06 am and is filed under Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
