Innovative Schematic Concept Analysis for a Space Suit Portable Life Support Subsystem

Conceptual designs for a space suit Personal Life Support Subsystem (PLSS) were developed and assessed to determine if upgrading the system using new, emerging, or projected technologies to fulfill basic functions would result in mass, volume, or performance improvements. Technologies were identified to satisfy each of the functions of the PLSS in three environments (zero-g, Lunar, and Martian) and in three time frames (2006, 2010, and 2020). The viability of candidate technologies was evaluated using evaluation criteria such as safety, technology readiness, and reliability. System concepts (schematics) were developed for combinations of time frame and environment by assigning specific technologies to each of four key functions of the PLSS -- oxygen supply, waste removal, thermal control, and power. The PLSS concepts were evaluated using the ExtraVehicular Activity System Sizing Analysis Tool, software created by NASA to analyze integrated system mass, volume, power and thermal loads. The assessment resulted in the Texas Engineering Experiment Station recommending to NASA an evolution path from the existing PLSS to a long duration, low mass PLSS suitable for Martian missions

Innovative Schematic Concept Analysis for a Space Suit Portable Life Support Subsystem

Conceptual designs for a space suit Personal Life Support Subsystem (PLSS) were developed and assessed to determine if upgrading the system using new, emerging, or projected technologies to fulfill basic functions would result in mass, volume, or performance improvements. Technologies were identified to satisfy each of the functions of the PLSS in three environments (zero-g, Lunar, and Martian) and in three time frames (2006, 2010, and 2020). The viability of candidate technologies was evaluated using evaluation criteria such as safety, technology readiness, and reliability. System concepts (schematics) were developed for combinations of time frame and environment by assigning specific technologies to each of four key functions of the PLSS -- oxygen supply, waste removal, thermal control, and power. The PLSS concepts were evaluated using the ExtraVehicular Activity System Sizing Analysis Tool, software created by NASA to analyze integrated system mass, volume, power and thermal loads. The assessment resulted in the Texas Engineering Experiment Station recommending to NASA an evolution path from the existing PLSS to a long duration, low mass PLSS suitable for Martian missions

No Borders: Bridging Cultures Through Yuri\u27s Night

Yuri’s Night is a non-profit organization that has facilitated a global celebration of humanity’s past, present, and future in space since 2001. Events are held annually in commemoration and celebration of the day of the first human spaceflight (12 April 1961), and the inaugural launch of the Space Shuttle twenty years later. In alignment with our mission statement, we aim to bridge cultures, be they geographic, social, or technical, as we are all learning to speak each other’s languages.Museum and science centers have celebrated a range of activities from dance parties with Stormtroopers to TweetUps with Astronauts. Locations have included: Powerhouse Discovery Centre (Australia); Rothney Astrophysical Observatory (Canada); University of Barcelona (Spain); Museum of Science and Technology (Sweden); Fiske Planetarium (USA); Great Lakes Science Center (USA); California Academy of Sciences (USA); and even the International Spaceflight Museum (Second Life).Yuri’s Night has reached the far corners of our planet on a variety of remote research platforms, where mission crews have recorded messages to share with events across the globe. Events have occurred in extreme places such as the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, in Mars simulations at the Mars Desert Research Station (USA) and Mars500 (Russia), and in orbit aboard the International Space Station. The upcoming ‘Explore with Yuri’ project aims to bring more attention to the initiative by encouraging people to submit photos and stories sporting Yuri’s Night t-shirts, stickers, and patches, in esoteric locations.Yuri’s Night has become more than an annual cultural space event and has reached the summit of Mt. Everest (patch with Astronaut Parazynski), SpaceUp Houston (USA), SpaceUp India, the set of the Big Bang Theory (flyer on Raj’s fridge), EndlessBBQ (barbeque celebrations with Space Tweeps), and the International Space Development Conference. Yuri’s Night contributed the event registration solution for the GetCurious campaign, which targeted landing parties for the Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity. More than 25,000 people celebrated the landing at events from The Planetary Society’s PlanetFest in Pasadena, USA, to ~13,000 people gathering in Algiers, Algeria.For Yuri’s Night 2013 and beyond, our team has launched new campaigns with outreach partners including increased K12 activity and the ‘We Want Our Future’ initiative. Yuri’s Night is breaking down borders to traditional space outreach and will continue to enter into popular culture by creating opportunities for anyone to celebrate human spaceflight in their own cultural context

Four-Month Moon and Mars Crew Water Utilization Study Conducted at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station, Devon Island, Nunavut

A categorized water usage study was undertaken at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station on Devon Island, Nunavut in the High Canadian Arctic. This study was conducted as part of a long duration four-month Mars mission simulation during the summer of 2007. The study determined that the crew of seven averaged 82.07 L/day over the expedition (standard deviation 22.58 L/day). The study also incorporated a Mars Time Study phase which determined that an average of 12.12 L/sol of water was required for each crewmember. Drinking, food preparation, hand/face, oral, dish wash, clothes wash, shower, shaving, cleaning, engineering, science, plant growth and medical water were each individually monitored throughout the detailed study phases. It was determined that implementing the monitoring program itself resulted in an approximate water savings of 1.5 L/day per crewmember. The seven person crew averaged 202 distinct water draws a day (standard deviation 34) with high water use periods focusing around meal times. No statistically significant correlation was established between total water use and EVA or exercise duration. Study results suggest that current crew water utilization estimates for long duration planetary surface stays are more than two times greater than that required