Performance Evaluations of an Advanced Space Suit Design for International Space Station and Planetary Applications

Experience with the Space Shuttle Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) and A7LB spacesuits has shown the need to investigate new spacesuit technologies for future missions requiring highly mobile, light weight and lower cost Extravehicular Activity spacesuit alternatives. An experimental spacesuit designated the I-Suit was developed to show the feasibility of attaining all three major design goals. The I-Suit is a highly mobile, multi-bearing, all soft fabric, prototype full pressure suit designed to operate effectively in zero gravity as well as in planetary applications. The I-Suit was designed with several fixed design requirements and a long list of goals. Once the prototype suit was fabricated, laboratory environment testing was performed in order to compare the I-Suit to the Shuttle EMU spacesuit and the Apollo A7LB spacesuit.