A NASA spacesuit glove designed for use during spacewalks on the International Space Station is prepared for thermal vacuum testing inside a one-of-a-kind chamber called CITADEL (Cryogenic Ice Testing, Acquisition Development, and Excavation Laboratory) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on Nov. 1, 2023.
Part of a NASA spacesuit design called the Extravehicular Mobility Unit, the glove was tested at vacuum and minus 352 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 213 degrees Celsius) — temperatures as frigid as those Artemis III astronauts could experience on the Moon’s South Pole. A team from NASA JPL, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, and the NASA Engineering and Safety Center have collaborated on testing gloves and boots in CITADEL. Elbow joints are slated for testing next. In addition to spotting vulnerabilities with existing NASA suit designs, the experiments will help the agency prepare criteria for test methods for the next-generation lunar suit — being built by Axiom Space — which NASA astronauts will wear during the Artemis III mission.
Read more about the testing needed for Artemis III.
Text credit: Melissa Pamer
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
2023年11月1日，美国国家航空航天局（NASA）专为国际空间站太空行走任务设计的宇航服手套在位于加利福尼亚州南部的NASA喷气推进实验室（JPL）内，进入名为CITADEL（低温冰层测试、采集开发与挖掘实验室）的一座独特测试舱，进行热真空测试。
该手套属于NASA宇航服设计中舱外活动机动装置（Extravehicular Mobility Unit, EMU）的一部分，测试环境模拟了接近阿尔忒弥斯3号（Artemis III）宇航员在月球南极可能遭遇的极端条件，真空状态下温度低至华氏零下352度（摄氏零下213度）。此次测试由NASA喷气推进实验室、位于休斯顿的NASA约翰逊航天中心，以及NASA工程与安全中心联合开展，测试对象还将扩展至手肘关节组件。
该实验旨在发现现有宇航服设计中的潜在薄弱环节，同时也为制定下一代月球宇航服的测试标准提供技术依据。下一代宇航服将由公理太空公司制造，并由NASA宇航员在阿尔忒弥斯3号任务中穿着使用。
文字来源: Melissa Pamer
图片来源: NASA/JPL-Caltech
