The I-Suit is a

spacesuit A space suit or spacesuit is a garment worn to keep a human alive in the harsh environment of outer space, vacuum and temperature extremes. Space suits are often worn inside spacecraft as a safety precaution in case of loss of cabin pressure, ...

model constructed by

ILC Dover ILC Dover, LP is a special engineering development and manufacturing company, globally headquartered in Newark, Delaware. ILC Dover specializes in the use of high-performance flexible materials, serving the aerospace, personal protection, and p ...

. The suit began as an

EVA Eva or EVA may refer to: * Eva (name), a feminine given name Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Eva (Dynamite Entertainment), a comic book character by Dynamite Entertainment * Eva (''Devil May Cry''), Dante's mother in t ...

mobility demonstrator, developed to meet a contract awarded by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

to ILC in 1997 for an all-soft suit. The I-Suit is designed for multiple roles, including planetary excursion and

microgravity The term micro-g environment (also μg, often referred to by the term microgravity) is more or less synonymous with the terms ''weightlessness'' and ''zero-g'', but emphasising that g-forces are never exactly zero—just very small (on the I ...

EVA. The first generation I-Suit is configured to work with the existing

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

EMU The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus ''Dromaius''. The emu' ...

helmet assembly and wrist bearing/disconnect, and incorporates a 2-bearing hip, hard waist entry, and walking boots. The suit meets requirements imposed by NASA for pressure, structural loads, joint mobility (

torque In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational equivalent of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). It represents the capability of a force to produce change in the rotational motion of th ...

and

range of motion Range of motion (or ROM), is the linear or angular distance that a moving object may normally travel while properly attached to another. It is also called range of travel (or ROT), particularly when talking about mechanical devices and in mechanic ...

), and resizing capability.

Improvements over EMU

The I-Suit incorporates improvements in materials and manufacturing techniques which make it both lighter and more mobile than the EMU. While the EMU is solely intended for the microgravity environment, where weight is not an issue, the I-Suit's planetary role makes weight a critical factor. By replacing the EMU's fiberglass

Hard Upper Torso A Hard Upper Torso Assembly, or HUT, is a central component of several space suits, notably Roscosmos' Orlan space suit, Orlan and NASA's Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU). The fiberglass HUT forms a rigid enclosure about the upper body of the o ...

(HUT) section with a soft upper torso, or SUT, and by using lightweight

titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...

in place of

stainless steel Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's corros ...

for load-bearing metal components, the I-suit weighs only 65 pounds (29 kg) without its life support backpack or thermal/micrometeoroid layer, compared to 107 lbs (49 kg) for the EMU. The suit also features a graphite-epoxy shoulder bearing housing, demonstrating the use of this material in place of

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

. Replacing all the suit's bearing housings with graphite-epoxy would save a further ten pounds (5 kg). Joint torque in fabric spacesuits is minimized by the careful placement of gores, convolutes, and

pleat A pleat (plait in older English) is a type of fold formed by doubling fabric back upon itself and securing it in place. It is commonly used in clothing and upholstery to gather a wide piece of fabric to a narrower circumference. Pleats are cat ...

s into the fabric structure. Improvements in joint torque in the I-Suit are primarily the result of refinement of these techniques, rather than the result of new technologies, though the suit does incorporate

Vectran Vectran is a manufactured fiber, spun from a liquid-crystal polymer (LCP) created by Celanese Corporation and now manufactured by Kuraray. Chemically it is an aromatic polyester produced by the polycondensation of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid and 6-hydr ...

in its restraint cords, which has somewhat improved thermal properties over the Spectra used in shuttle suits.

Versions

After the original I-Suit was delivered to NASA, improvements to the design were incorporated into a second generation suit, including a new helmet with improved visibility range, a redesigned hip/thigh joint, and improved boots and waist hardware. The second generation I-suit incorporates a rear-entry hatch. Technologies evaluated with the second generation suit include electronic textiles for use as buttons incorporated into the suit, a heads-up display,

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

capability, and

speech recognition Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enable the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers with the m ...

software to allow the suit occupant to receive information from the suit and external hardware. The I-Suit, as well as ILC's Mark III suit, has been involved in field testing during NASA's annual

Desert Research and Technology Studies NASA's Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert RATS or D-RATS) is a group of teams which perform an annual series of field trials seeking to demonstrate and test candidate technologies and systems for human exploration of the surface of th ...

(D-RATS) field trials, during which suit occupants interact with one another, and with rovers and other equipment. Generation I (1997-1998)ILC Spacesuits & Related Products
/ref> Generation 2 (2000-2005) Generation 3 (2005–present)

References

External links

ILC Spacesuits & Related Products
{{space suit American spacesuits