WASHINGTON — NASA has chosen Collins Aerospace to develop a next-generation spacesuit for the Worldwide Area Station, changing growing older fits which have develop into a security concern.
NASA awarded a process order valued at $97.2 million to Collins to design, construct and reveal the swimsuit, which can exchange the present, decades-old Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) fits used for spacewalks exterior the ISS. The duty order covers growth of the swimsuit and testing on Earth in a simulated area surroundings by January 2024.
An possibility within the process order, whose worth was not disclosed, would contain demonstrating the swimsuit on an ISS spacewalk with NASA astronauts, no later than April 2026.
“Our next-generation spacesuit was constructed by astronauts for astronauts, persevering with Collins’ long-standing legacy as a trusted accomplice of NASA’s human area exploration,” mentioned Dave McClure, vice chairman and common supervisor at Collins, in an organization assertion. The Collins workforce contains ILC Dover and Oceaneering.
The corporate launched few particulars concerning the design of the swimsuit, apart from to say it’s lighter and fewer cumbersome than the present EMU, bettering effectivity, vary of movement and luxury. The swimsuit can be designed to suit “practically” any physique sort to fulfill NASA necessities.
NASA had been searching for years at choices to interchange the EMUs, that are many years outdated and displaying indicators of growing older. NASA halted spacewalks exterior the station for a number of months earlier this 12 months after noticing water within the helmet of an astronaut, Matthias Maurer, throughout a March spacewalk. An investigation discovered no {hardware} flaw with the swimsuit, and NASA concluded in October that “integrated system performance” involving several variables caused the water to collect in the suit helmet.
NASA mentioned it up to date procedures and developed “new mitigation {hardware}” to reduce water accumulation and to soak up any water that does accumulate within the helmet. With these measures, NASA resumed spacewalks on the ISS in November.
NASA’s Aerospace Security Advisory Panel has been carefully monitoring the difficulty. The panel, which supplies recommendation to NASA on issues of safety, had lengthy been involved with the growing older spacesuits and the dangers they posed to astronauts.
“Whereas we, the panel, continued to be involved concerning the long-term sustainability of the ISS spacesuits, given their age, the decision of the latest water intrusion subject is affordable,” mentioned Sandy Magnus, a panel member and former astronaut, throughout an Oct. 27 public assembly of the panel. “We’re very a lot wanting ahead to listening to extra concerning the timing and the deployment of the brand new fits.”
NASA selected Collins and Axiom Space in June for contracts called Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services. The 2 firms would then compete for process orders to develop spacesuits and supply them to NASA as a service, fairly than have the company personal them. That might enable the businesses to supply the fits to different clients, akin to firms creating business area stations.
NASA selected Axiom Space in September for the first task order to develop fits for Artemis missions, an award valued at $228.5 million. Neither NASA nor Axiom have launched particulars concerning the swimsuit design. NASA mentioned it acquired proposals from each firms however didn’t disclose why it chosen Axiom.
One member of the Collins workforce means that they’re nonetheless within the working to supply spacesuits for later lunar missions by adapting the design they’ll develop for the ISS. “Leveraging our many years of expertise engineering the stress clothes for the Apollo missions and the ISS, our newest spacesuits can have the flexibility to be outfitted for missions from the ISS to the lunar floor and past,” mentioned Corey Walker, chief government of ILC Dover.
