Currently, most EVAs (Extra-Vehicular Activities) are not for scientific discovery, but to perform standard maintenance on the International Space Station. A single EVA can take over six hours and requires several more hours of preparation before and after. This significantly decreases the amount of time astronauts can spend conducting research onboard the ISS. In addition, fine motor control is severely limited in pressurized spacesuits, making EVAs some of the most exhausting tasks astronauts undertake. Research suggests that transitioning from today's soft, fabric spacesuit joints to hard joints and bearings could improve the mobility of astronauts. While some researchers have built suits using primarily or only rigid joints (notably the Ames Experimental, or AX suit series), such suits have yet to be employed on a mission.
Research Question:
Can rigid spacesuit joints--coupled with additive manufacturing, robotic/exoskeletal assistance, and other technologies--reduce the physical demands made on astronauts during spacewalks?
Current Research:
For the first stage of our research, we completed the "In-Space Fabricated Spacesuits for Extended Exploration and Settlement" project, awarded to our mentor Dr. Akin under NASA's X-HAB Academic Innovation Challenge. The goal of this yearlong project was to develop the technology to construct rigid spacesuit joints, such as those employed by the AX-5, using almost exclusively additive manufacturing (commonly known as 3D printing). After the completion of this project, we presented our work at the U21 Undergraduate Research Conference in Edinburgh and the 47th International Conference on Environmental Systems (our conference paper can be found here). We have spent the last year designing and testing our prototype, and we recently completed human trials.