Some Problems of Selection and Evaluation of the Martian Suit Enclosure Concept Isaak Abramov∗, Nikolay Moiseyev, Anatoly Stoklitsky

Acta Astronautica 57 (2005) 901–909 www.elsevier.com/locate/actaastro

Some problems of selection and evaluation of the Martian suit enclosure concept Isaak Abramov∗, Nikolay Moiseyev, Anatoly Stoklitsky

“RD&PE Zvezda” JSC, 39, Gogol street, Tomilino, Moscow region, 140070, Russia

Received 12 May 2004; received in revised form 17 May 2005; accepted 17 May 2005 Available online 2 November 2005

Abstract One of the most important tasks for preparation of a future manned mission to Mars is to create a space suit, which ensures efﬁcient and safe operation of the man on the planet surface. The concept of space suit (SS) utilisation on the Mars surface will be determined mainly by the Mars mission scenario. Currently the preference is given to utilisation of robotics with the crew driving a Mars rover vehicle, whereby the suit will be used solely as an additional safety means. However, one cannot exclude the necessity of a durable self-contained stay of the man outside a pressurised compartment, to pick up, for instance, soil samples or do certain repair work in case of an emergency. The requirements to the Mars suit and especially to the personal self-contained life support system (LSS) will depend in many respects on the Mars environmental conditions, the space vehicle system concept and performance characteristics, the airlock and its interface design, the availability of expendable elements for the LSS, etc. The paper reviews principal problems, which have to be solved during development of the Martian suit. A special attention is paid to the issue of suited man mobility during traversing on the planet surface. The paper also reviews the arguments for application of a suit semi-rigid design concept and evaluates potentialities of using certain elements of the existing “Orlan” type suit. The paper presents results of a number of studies on selection of the planetary SS enclosure concept and on experimental evaluation of mobility of the lower torso and leg enclosures in conjunction with a specially designed prototype model (tentative model) of the SS enclosure. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction “RD&PE Zvezda” JSC has accumulated a considerable experience in development and long operations Success of an extravehicular activity (EVA) on the of the orbital space suits for the Salyut, Mir and ISS Martian surface will depend in many respects on the programmes. In 1960s, it has also run activities on selected concept of the planetary space suit. development of the KRECHET suit for the Soviet Lu- ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +7 095 557 33 94; nar programme. Therefore, a possibility to apply the fax: +7 095 557 33 88. available experience and components of earlier devel- E-mail address: [email protected] (I. Abramov). oped items for development of a new planetary suit

0094-5765/$ - see front matter © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2005.05.001 902 I. Abramov et al. / Acta Astronautica 57 (2005) 901–909 concept was considered first of all. The experience the landing module ladder, enter/leave the airlock or gained in the orbiting stations showed that the space the Martian rover vehicle, etc. All these considera- suits of a semi-rigid type were the optimum suits to tions require that a special attention shall be paid to perform EVA.These suits (the ORLAN family) feature the mobility of the lower torso assembly. This paper a hard upper torso (HUT) integrated with a helmet, a mainly covers selection of concepts of space suit en- back entry hatch incorporating the life support system closure elements, which offer the adequate mobility of (LSS) components and soft arms, lower torso assembly the enclosure, and investigations related to operation (LTA) and legs. of these elements. Therefore, we can assert with full confidence that it is a suit of the semi-rigid type that will be given preference during selection of the concept of future plan- 2. Main problems associated with the selection of etary suits. US specialists involved in development of a Martian suit concept planetary suits have generally arrived at the similar conclusion. Specific Martian environments and Mars mission However, the consideration of suit operational con- scenario as a whole are the principal considerations, ditions on Mars shows that currently used orbital suits which affect to a considerable degree selection of the are not designed to operate in new planetary environ- design concept of the Mars suit and the LSS in par- ments. A number of new problems shall be tackled for ticular. a Mars suit. First of all this refers to the adequate suit For instance, the existing suit thermal control sys- enclosure mobility. tem cannot operate under atmospheric pressure at the Space station extravehicular activities call for a con- Mars ground level. However, the Martian atmosphere centration of efforts aimed to provide high perfor- pressure level is not sufficient to use no pressure suit mance capability of the crew member hands because at all. he/she uses them to fix his/her position travelling along The Mars gravitational force imposes additional re- the station surface, perform activities with various ap- quirements on the total planetary suit mass. Moreover, paratus, tools, control panels and controls, as well as the Martian surface features a very complicated radi- to transport cargoes, perform assembly activities, etc. ation situation, a significant temperature differential, Here, in the weightlessness, the crew member legs dusty storms, etc. play a secondary role, they are mostly used to retain One can imagine several versions of using the Mar- the space suit at the workstation or to support transfer tian suit. through the airlock hatch holes. Therefore it is quite natural that the arms and gloves • Transfer of the suited crew member within a pres- of the Russian orbital suits of the ORLAN type have surised Mars rover (in this case the crew member been continuously improved and, thus, feature rather may separate the suit from the rover systems and high mobility characteristics. In the current configura- leave the Mars rover for 1–2 h only in emergency tion, as far as their mobility is concerned, they could and for the return to the mother vehicle); be used for the Martian suit. • Transfer of the suited crew member within an un- At the same time, the soft torso of the ORLAN type pressurised Mars rover (the rover LSS is used to orbital space suit does not feature any mobility at all feed the suit). As in the above case, duration of the and the leg enclosures have minimum mobility needed self-contained mode may be reduced to 1–2 h; to fulfil only the above-mentioned tasks. • The traversing of the suited crew member on the In contrast with the orbital suit, one of the main fea- Martian surface not far away from the Mars rover. tures of the Martian suit is to provide the crew member Space suit LSS elements are to be periodically re- with the capability of traversing across a rugged plan- placed with those from the stock stored in the Mars etary terrain and working with soil samples. Such ac- rover; tivities call for bending forwards and kneeling. Other • Durable activities of the suited crew member on the required features of the planetary suit shall include Martian surface with the suit operating in the self- the ability of the crew member to climb and descend contained mode for 6–7 h. Download English Version: https://daneshyari.com/en/article/10680862

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