EVA Suit 2000: a joint European/Russian space suit design

Numerical Investigation on Heat-Transfer and Hydromechanical Performance Inside Contaminant-Insensitive Sublimators Under a Vacuum Environment for Spacecraft Applications

The contaminant-insensitive sublimator (CIS) is a novel water sublimator in development, which uses two porous substrates to separate the sublimation point from the pressure-control point and provide long-life effective cooling for spacecraft. Many essential studies need to be carried out in the field. To overcome the reliability issues such as ice breakthrough caused by large temperature or pressure differences, the CIS development unit model, the mathematical models of heat and mass transfer and the evaluation coefficient have been established. Numerical investigations have been implemented aiming at the impacts of physical properties of porous substrate, physical properties of working fluid, orifice layouts and orifice-structure parameters on the characteristics of flow field and temperature field. The numerical investigation shows some valuable conclusion, such as the temperature uniformity coefficient at the bottom surface of the large pore substrate is 0.997669 and the pressure uniformity coefficient at the same surface is 0.85361267. These numerical results can provide structure and data reference for the CIS design of lunar probe or spacesuit.

Design and control optimization of microclimate liquid cooling systems underneath protective clothing

The use of protective clothing, whether in space suits, hazardous waste disposal, or sporting equipment, generally increases the risk of heat stress and hyperthermia by impairing the capacity for evaporative heat exchange from the body to the environment. To date the most efficient method of microclimate cooling underneath protective clothing has been via conductive heat exchange from circulating cooling fluid next to the skin. In order to make the use of liquid microclimate cooling systems ((LQ)MCSs) as portable and practical as possible, the physiological and biomedical engineering design goals should be towards maximizing the efficiency of cooling to maintain thermal comfort/neutrality with the least cooling possible to minimize coolant and power requirements. Meeting these conditions is an extremely complex task that requires designing for a plethora of different factors. The optimal fitting of the (LQ)MCSs, along with placement and design of tubing and control of cooling, appear to be key avenues towards maximizing efficiency of heat exchange. We review the history and major design constraints of (LQ)MCSs, the basic principles of human thermoregulation underneath protective clothing, and explore potential areas of research into tubing/fabric technology, coolant distribution, and control optimization that may enhance the efficiency of (LQ)MCSs.

EVA 2000: a European/Russian space suit concept

For the European manned space activities an EVA space suit system was being developed in the frame of the Hermes Space Vehicle Programme of the European Space Agency (ESA). The space suit was to serve the needs for all relevant extravehicular activities for the Hermes Columbus operations planned to begin in 2004. For the present Russian manned space programme the relevant EVAs are performed by the Orlan-DMA semi-rigid space suit. The origin of its development reaches back to the 1970s and has since been adapted to cover the needs for extravehicular activities on Salyut and MIR until today. The latest modification of the space suit, which guaranteed its completely self-contained operation, was made in 1988. However, Russian specialists considered it necessary to start developing an EVA space suit of a new generation, which would have improved performance and would cover the needs by the turn of the century and into the beginning of the next century. Potentially these two suit developments could have a lot in common based on similarities in present concepts. As future manned space activities become more and more an international effort, a safe and reliable interoperability of the different space suit systems is required. Based on the results of the Munich Minister Conference in 1991, the European Space Agency and the Russian Space Agency agreed to initiate a requirements analysis and conceptual design study to determine the feasibility of a joint space suit development, EVA 2000. The design philosophy for the EVA 2000 study was oriented on a space suit system design of: space suit commonality and interoperability; increased crew productivity and safety; increase in useful life and reduced maintainability; reduced development and production cost. The EVA 2000 feasibility study was performed in 1992, and with the positive conclusions for EVA 2000, this approach became the new joint European Russian EVA Suit 2000 Development Programme. This paper gives an overview of the results of the feasibility study and presents the joint requirements and the proposed design concept of a jointly developed European Russian space suit.