[ad_1]
- NASA is developing a new spacesuit for the first time in 40 years.
- It will be used in the upcoming Artemis program, NASA’s plan to send astronauts to the moon by 2024.
- But before it is ready for flight, the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or xEMU, must pass three rigorous testing phases.
- These include underwater tests, temperature tests and durability tests.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
Below is a transcript of the video.
Narrator: This is not your traditional swimsuit. It is actually NASA’s Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or xEMU, the first new flight space suit developed by the agency in over 40 years. And that’s what the next astronauts will wear when we finally return to the moon in 2024. But before his boots touch the moon’s surface, the suit has to be tested, rigorously.
Amy Ross: We know that if we don’t do our job well, we can kill someone.
Narrator: Testing isn’t just about making sure it works. It’s about making sure the astronauts who use it get home safe and sound.
Ross: We are a life support system. And so this is something we all know and keep in mind every day as we do our job, because rule no. 1 is for the crew members to go home.
Narrator: This is Amy. And Amy has to make sure the dress can stand up to a lot. The Artemis program plans to take crews to the moon’s south pole for months at a time, in shady regions that could drop to minus 370 degrees Fahrenheit or even lower. And astronauts will have to double as geologists, especially given NASA’s discovery of ice on the moon, something that could help power the rockets, turning the moon into a gas station en route to Mars. So the xEMU testing process was long and exhausting, with some tests running double the recommended amount just to be safe.
It’s all broken down into three stages. Development, project verification and qualification. The first phase concerns the finalization of a project. Amy and her team try out several lower quality components before deciding which project to actually build.
Ross: Now it’s like a car. Is your car turning well? Well, until you put it in a car, it’s hard to tell. We can put in different shoulders and see, does this shoulder work better than this shoulder?
Narrator: Once everything is understood, the suit moves on to the verification phase of the project.
Ross: The idea is that we will be on the moon for months at a time. This means you need to be very flexible and capable and you need to be durable.
Narrator: Now, we’ve been to the moon before, but not for that long, not in this place, and not with the knowledge we have now.
Ross: We are asked to go to permanently shaded regions because there are gases in those places that remain very, very cold. And I’m talking, like, minus -370 degrees Fahrenheit cold.
Narrator: They won’t work in such cold temperatures, but the suit must withstand temperatures as low as 250 degrees Fahrenheit and as low as minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit, a wider range than ever. To make sure it holds up, NASA tests the suit in what is basically a large vacuum oven / freezer, both manned and unmanned.
Ross: Chamber B here at Johnson Space Center is a human rated vacuum heat chamber that we will be using. We will go there with a portable life support system on our back, then we will test the suit through its different stages of operation to make sure it holds up and works in the vacuum and thermal environments that we will see.
Narrator: Together with the controlled temperature, the suit must be durable. When we first went to the moon, scientists were concerned that the regolith-covered lunar surface would not bear the weight of people and machines. But the real problem with regolith is that it’s sharp and dusty, something that could really ruin a spacesuit’s fine-tuned functioning. So what is the best place to test for dust resistance?
Ross: In a dusty and rocky environment.
Narrator: This is what Arizona desert endurance testing looks like.
Ross: And that kind of tells you which parts of your suit are affected by dust, does it have that much problem with dust? Is your mobility system really capable of walking on this rough terrain? That kind of thing.
Narrator: But the desert simulates the terrain of the moon and not much else. To test mobility in lunar gravity, engineers need to move to a more humid place.
Ross: Like the neutral flotation laboratory, our large swimming pool.
Narrator: In this gigantic pool, 12 meters deep, astronauts can see what it feels like to be on the moon, up to a point.
Ross: It’s not quite like lunar gravity, because as you try to walk, you have to push through the water. But as a reasonable analog for doing some activities, it’s good.
Narrator: Activities such as climbing stairs, using tools, and ceremonially planting the American flag. These tests allow engineers to collect objective data on the life support system and the suit’s mobility, but also subjective data on the crew’s experience in using it.
Ross: Our dress isn’t finished until they say it’s finished and they like it and think they can use it to do their job.
Narrator: Now, qualification tests include many of the same things as project verification, but there are some key differences.
Ross: Part of it is the paperwork.
Narrator: Things get a little tighter in the qualifying phase.
Ross: We take great care to make sure we understand everything that is done with flight hardware. If you change a screw, there is a piece of paper, it says this new screw was inserted on this date in this particular place.
Narrator: As this is the stage where lower quality test hardware is replaced with fancy things ready to fly, testing can slow down a bit. But in the end…
Ross: When you do the qualification tests, you are really using it as a test for everyone to put in front of everyone who says this suit is good for space flying.
Narrator: And once you get the green light …
Ross: This is when you load it into a vehicle, take it into space and use it on a mission.
Narrator: NASA plans to send the xEMU to be used on the International Space Station in 2023 to collect flight data and confirm the overall performance of the suit. It is important to note that this is not actually considered a test.
Ross: At NASA, we need to feel very confident that that hardware will work the way it was supposed to work before it flew. So we don’t usually go flying calling it a test.
Narrator: Instead, it’s a flight data mission. And it will be one of the last major milestones before xEMU is ready to land on the moon. Space suit tests can take years, thousands of elbow bends, and even more tests than we are able to show here. But it is all necessary to ensure comfort, functionality, and most importantly, safety for NASA astronauts. Oh, and I know you’re probably curious about how they test the suit bathroom situation. Well, NASA practically created a diaper.
Ross: And we tend to use simulated urine, just to keep things tidier.
Narrator: Here it is. And subscribe to our YouTube channel to never miss a space secret.
Source link
