Title: Design, Analysis, and Manufacturing of a Fiber Reinforced Composite Hard Upper Torso for the Exploration Space Suit

Authors: Julie N. Strickland, Pablo Sanz Martinez, Aaron Noel, Patrick Nolan, Alan Cheung, Dan Ursenbach

DOI: 10.33599/nasampe/s.21.0542

Abstract: Two business units within Collins Aerospace, Mission Systems (Houston, Texas) and Aerostructures (Chula Vista, California), partnered to fabricate a composite Hard Upper Torso (HUT) and Rear Entry Door (RED) demonstrator for the next generation lunar exploration extravehicular mobility unit (xEMU or space suit). For this project, the team used NASA’s publicly-available CAD files of metallic xEMU design as a starting place and adapted it to lightweight composite materials while maintaining compliance to NASA’s pressurization requirements. The HUT fabricated here is a hand-layup of toughened pre-impregnated (prepreg) epoxy/carbon fiber, and rapid 3D-printed thermoplastic/glass fiber frame sections and inserts. The tooling used for the layup was also 3D printed. Results are presented and discussed.

References: 1. David Graziosi, Bobby Jones, Jinny Ferl, Steven Scarborough, Linda Hewes, Amy Ross, and Richard Rhodes, A-2 Architecture Description and Requirements Verification Results. Austria: ICES, 2016. ICES-2016-301. 2. Amy Ross, Richard Rhodes, David Graziosi, Bobby Jones, Ryan Lee, Bazle Z. (Gama) Haque, and John W. Gillespie Jr., Z-2 Prototype Space Suit Development. Arizona: ICES, 2014. ICES-2014-091. 3. Composites World, Composites in the Martian Suit. www.compositesworld.com: Composites World, 2016. 4. NASA, 2020 EVA System Maturation Team Gap List. www.nasa.gov/suitup : Reference Documents, accessed 2020.

Conference: SAMPE NEXUS 2021

Publication Date: 2021/06/29

SKU: TP21-0000000542

Pages: 14

Price: FREE