Photo: Bonnie Dunbar/Texas A&M
With the Artemis Moon exploration program knocking on our door, the race to develop supporting logistics is accelerating. On the spacesuit front, NASA awarded back in June a contract to Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace for the development of the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) to be used for Moon landings.
Although revolutionary when compared to the current variant, in use since 1983, xEMU will probably not be tailored to suit astronauts of all shapes and sized and, just like the Space Shuttle spacesuit, will be something people will have to adapt to, and not the other way around. And it will probably not be fit for the needs of Mars astronauts.
As it stands, crewed Mars missions are not envisioned before the 2030s. It’s too early to talk about them, but not too early to pave the way. And one way researcher Bonnie Dunbar from Texas A&M University is planning to do that is to use Digital Thread for the development of Mars spacesuits.
Digital Thread (DT) is defined as the use of digital tools to design, evaluate, and manage products, and it’s already a thing in some aspects of human activity. It’s unclear how that’ll work for custom spacesuit design, and this is why Dunbar submitted the idea of a feasibility study to NASA, which rewarded her with an Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I grant.
The study aims to “identify all key components of a spacesuit and current manufacturing technologies, map those to DT components, identify technology gaps, benchmark required technologies and capabilities in industry, academia and government, and develop a conceptional DT model for future Spacesuit Development and operational support.”
If it proves itself, the concept could be used to create custom spacesuits for Mars astronauts (and those going to other places in the future), “anthropometrically shaped space ships which must protect the crew from the extreme environments of space,” while at the same time allowing for all the mobility they need to perform their tasks.
Being in pre-feasibility study phase, this project is still in its infancy, but don’t be surprised if upcoming spacesuits will be born thanks to what you read about above.
As it stands, crewed Mars missions are not envisioned before the 2030s. It’s too early to talk about them, but not too early to pave the way. And one way researcher Bonnie Dunbar from Texas A&M University is planning to do that is to use Digital Thread for the development of Mars spacesuits.
Digital Thread (DT) is defined as the use of digital tools to design, evaluate, and manage products, and it’s already a thing in some aspects of human activity. It’s unclear how that’ll work for custom spacesuit design, and this is why Dunbar submitted the idea of a feasibility study to NASA, which rewarded her with an Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I grant.
The study aims to “identify all key components of a spacesuit and current manufacturing technologies, map those to DT components, identify technology gaps, benchmark required technologies and capabilities in industry, academia and government, and develop a conceptional DT model for future Spacesuit Development and operational support.”
If it proves itself, the concept could be used to create custom spacesuits for Mars astronauts (and those going to other places in the future), “anthropometrically shaped space ships which must protect the crew from the extreme environments of space,” while at the same time allowing for all the mobility they need to perform their tasks.
Being in pre-feasibility study phase, this project is still in its infancy, but don’t be surprised if upcoming spacesuits will be born thanks to what you read about above.
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