Modeling and testing of a mechanical counterpressure BioSuit system

The President's Vision for Space Exploration calls for a returned human presence on the Moon, followed by human missions to Mars. The astronauts on these missions will require a more robust and flexible spacesuit than currently exists to conduct exploration and science operations as well as maintain a base on planetary surfaces. The BioSuit system is a modular spacesuit concept based on the theory of mechanical counterpressure (MCP). Considerable experimental work has been conducted in the field of MCP, but there has been no analysis of the hypothetical best level of uniformity of pressure production for this type of spacesuit design. Therefore, computer modeling has been undertaken to verify the feasibility of such a design, which is based on not only providing the required pressure on the skin, but also limiting the variation of pressure production around a cross-section of the body. Given the data sets available, which exclusively consist of legs under normal atmospheric pressure, not mechanical counterpressure, the modeling work indicates that a MCP-based design can meet these requirements.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Judnick, Daniel Clemente Louis

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jeffrey A. Hoffman.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39489

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/39489