New NASA Prototype Spacesuit Development

What challenges must be overcome to build a spacesuit capable of withstanding the heat, cold, and the extreme environment of space? Learn about the accomplishments achieved by those working in space and discover two new prototype spacesuits, the PXS and the Z-2, as NASA continues to build on a 50 year legacy of spacesuits and prepares the next generation of explorers for the journey to Mars.

Transcript

00:00:02 when you put a human being in a space suit suddenly The Impossible is possible since 1965 NASA has conducted hundreds of Evas short for extra vehicular activity so when I think of Eva I think of the symbolism of a fellow human being existing for even just a short period of time alone and separated from nearly everything else and I think of that

00:00:30 symbol of that single person representing our species and representing our Voyage of exploration before exploration can take place before a human being can step outside the spacecraft another mission must be accomplished the creation of the space suit throughout the history of Eva NASA has sought to build the best space suit and tools to match the job required for

00:01:05 the mission for our suit Engineers this means designing testing and redesigning to get it right during Gemini our designers were faced with a tough challenge to create the very first US space suits suits that would allow astronauts to work outside the spacecraft in low earth orbit building on that experience new suits were developed for the Apollo

00:01:29 missions this time astronauts needed to walk on the Moon while carrying their own life support on their backs with planetary surface exploration is the objective the suit had to bend and move to facilitate tool use and protect the human during the shuttle years NASA redefined what could be done with Eva suits and tools retrieving broken

00:01:55 satellites rescuing and rebuilding the Hubble Space Telescope and building the International Space Station the same shuttle space suit is on the space station today it allows us to maintain and repair our home in space but what about future missions what kind of a suit will we need will we be walking on a planetary surface floating in microgravity or both NASA is already

00:02:22 investigating the next generation of space suits creating a variety of prototypes to prepare astronauts for the journeys ahead the Z2 is one of those prototypes its Sleek design looks different from any other space suit NASA previously built we were able to take some artistic license on this uh prototype space suit and have some fun with it and engage

00:02:48 folks out around the country for what they would like to see in a space suit we work with Philadelphia University to do the initial layouts of the suit and then um we have some in-house fashion designers uh that uh also help build our space suits and they were able to bring their experiences to it and um evolve that cover layer to to make it even better um than what we started with the

00:03:11 Z2 isn't just fashion forward on the outside it's also technologically advanced on the inside this is one suit made for walking on other planets that is to be a planetary space suit some of the special features on the Z2 are boots specifically designed for walking and for keeping your foot integrated into the boot well like a good hiking boot it also has a lot of lower torso Mobility

00:03:34 that allows you to walk naturally so that you can go uphill downhill into craters pick up a rock as a geologist would want to do on a planetary surface like any prototype NASA hopes to learn a lot from the Z2 as it continues to improve and develop space suits prototypes are really important for space suit development because you can only do so much in the modeling and

00:03:56 Analysis world you really don't know how well the suit works works until you integrate it with a person you get the feedback that a person can give you you have them walk around you have them try different tasks that's how we really know that we've done a good job designing the space suit another suit in the works is the Prototype exploration suit or

00:04:17 pxs this suit could be used for Evas in microgravity or it could be further modified for walking on planets as with all future space suits NASA is wanting to see better Mobility more visibility and better control and communication so one of my main responsibilities on the space suit is the suit control assembly and that's the box that sits right here on the front of the suit and it allows

00:04:41 the crew member to control their life support components such as their Cooling and their pressure and it also controls a lot of the electronics um such as the radio and the volume and they can see some of the data that's coming back and forth from the suit computer to that display so one of the great things about this job is that after designing the box I'm able to get into the suit since it's

00:05:02 one of the smaller sizes and we can actually see what the limitations are uh you know with my own hands and and eyes and not just hear that second hand from another test subject that would be looking at the same data and then to take that back and then to go build the next prototype and you know incorporate the changes that need to be made so that it works better the next

00:05:25 time whether it's the pxs or the Z2 new NASA space suits have a big job to do and that's not just being in a vacuum but it's very hot it can be very cold um and then in addition to that there are little microm meteoroids that are flying past that you have to protect in case that does hit the suit so so there's a lot of things that go into protecting the crew member in addition to just

00:05:49 being in a vacuum and when we go farther to the moon or Mars you have to protect in case you trip and fall so there's a lot of protection that the suit has to take into account no matter where we go or what we do space suits and Eva tasks will continue to change and evolve to keep up SPAC suit Engineers will use new technologies new materials and new ideas

00:06:15 to help us on our way in the future I'm looking forward to space suits that are much more of a tool for the astronaut that is more integrated with the human and is less of a encumbrance and more of a help I think of Eva as as basically a ship of exploration a ship of learning and understanding both about what makes us uh individually human and about what makes us together a team that seeks to

00:06:43 learn and understand what the truth around us is and that search for knowledge that search for truth is I think one of the most noble and meaningful Endeavors that we can pursue together