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Suitport Feasibility: Development and Test of a Suitport and Space Suit for Human Pressurized Space Suit Donning TestsThe suitport concept has been recently implemented as part of the small pressurized lunar rover (Currently the Space Exploration vehicle, or SEV) and the Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle (MMSEV) concept demonstrator vehicle. Suitport replaces or augments the traditional airlock function of a spacecraft by providing a bulkhead opening, capture mechanism, and sealing system to allow ingress and egress of a space suit while the space suit remains outside of the pressurized volume of the spacecraft. This presents significant new opportunities to EVA exploration in both microgravity and surface environments. The suitport concept will enable three main improvements in EVA by providing reductions in: pre-EVA time from hours to less than thirty minutes; airlock consumables; contamination returned to the cabin with the EVA crewmember. To date, the first generation suitport has been tested with mockup suits on the rover cabins and pressurized on a bench top engineering unit. The work on the rover cabin has helped define the operational concepts and timelines, and has demonstrated the potential of suitport to save significant amounts of crew time before and after EVAs. The work with the engineering unit has successfully demonstrated the pressurizable seal concept including the ability to seal after the introduction and removal of contamination to the sealing surfaces. Using this experience, a second generation suitport was designed. This second generation suitport has been tested with a space suit prototype on the second generation MMSEV cabin, and testing is planned using the pressure differentials of the spacecraft. Pressurized testing will be performed using the JSC B32 Chamber B, a human rated vacuum chamber. This test will include human rated suitports, a suitport compatible prototype suit, and chamber modifications. This test will bring these three elements together in the first ever pressurized donning of a rear entry suit through a suitport. This paper presents the design of a human rated second generation suitport, the design of a suit capable of supporting pressurized human donning through a suitport, ambient pressure testing of the suit with the suitport, and modifications to the JSC human rated chamber B to accept a suitport. Design challenges and solutions, as well as compromises required to develop the system, are presented. Initial human testing results are presented.
Document ID
20120011640
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Boyle, Robert M.
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Mitchell, Kathryn
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Allton, Charles
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Ju, Hsing
(Jacobs Technology, Inc. Houston, TX, United States)
Date Acquired
August 26, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2012
Subject Category
Spacecraft Design, Testing And Performance
Report/Patent Number
JSC-CN-26333
Meeting Information
Meeting: 42nd International Conferece on Environmental Systems
Location: San Diego, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: July 15, 2012
End Date: July 19, 2012
Sponsors: American Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
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