NASA Requires Development of Gloves and Footwear to Endure Extreme Lunar Coldness
NASA's upcoming missions to the Moon are gearing up to be a real frosty affair, with the agency working hard to keep astronauts cozy when exploring the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar south pole. A gang of NASA engineers are all set to test out the elbow joints in a monstrous cryogenic chamber to evaluate the newest generation of spacesuits designed for the Moon-bound astronauts.
This colossal chamber, known as CITADEL (Cryogenic Ice Testing, Acquisition Development, and Excavation Laboratory), has been in operation at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Originally built to test robot parts for non-crewed missions to icy moons across the solar system, CITADEL is now lending a hand for humanity's long-awaited return to the Moon.
"We're keen on understanding the risks for the astronauts venturing into permanently shadowed regions, and gloves and boots play a pivotal role because they come into prolonged contact with cold surfaces and tools," said Zach Fester, an engineer with the Advanced Suit Team at NASA Johnson and the technical lead for the boot testing, in a statement.
Standing at four feet tall and five feet wide, CITADEL would make even the tallest construction worker look puny. Unlike traditional cryogenic facilities that cool an object with liquid nitrogen, CITADEL uses compressed helium to reach temperatures as frigid as -370 Fahrenheit (-223 Celsius). Reaching these sub-zero temps takes several days, and opening the chamber can restart the whole process. To avoid any unwanted delays, CITADEL is armed with four load locks, chamber-like drawers that enable test materials to be inserted while keeping the chilled vacuum state intact.
CITADEL is also equipped with a robotic arm to grab test materials and plays host to visible and infrared light cameras, recording the entire testing process. For simulations of Moon missions, the team will add abrasion testing, lunar regolith-like material, and aluminum blocks to the chamber to mimic tools that astronauts might handle.
In the past, NASA would recruit its own astronauts for thermal testing, requiring them to plunge their gloved hands into a freezing glove box, seize frozen objects, and hold on tight until their skin temperatures plummeted to a frosty 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius). These days, NASA uses a custom-built manikin hand and foot for testing inside of CITADEL. The manikin's extremities are fitted with a system of fluid loops, simulating the flow of warm blood through the limbs, and packed with dozens of temperature and heat flux sensors that gather data from inside the gloves and boots.
NASA's Artemis 3 mission aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since the Apollo days. Previous Apollo astronauts landed near the equator on the Moon's near side, but the Artemis crews will venture to the lunar south pole. This side of the Moon is a hot topic among scientists since it may harbor water ice in permanently shadowed regions. However, it's a harsh environment due to bone-chilling temperatures and locations where the sun's rays don't reach. The Artemis astronauts will spend roughly two hours at a time inside craters suspected of holding ice deposits, where temperatures can reach an icy -414 degrees Fahrenheit (-248 degrees Celsius), according to NASA.
The astronauts returning to the Moon will don sleek, modern spacesuits. In 2022, NASA enlisted Axiom Space to develop the first Moon-walking spacesuits since the Apollo missions. Axiom Space then revealed the AxEMU, short for Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit, which is inspired by the legacy of the Apollo suits while incorporating new technology to allow astronauts greater flexibility and improved protection against the lunar environment. Axiom Space partnered with Prada to draw on the brand's design expertise and materials, while also aiming to provide a stylish look for the astronauts on the Moon.
The ongoing tests in CITADEL will assist NASA in defining criteria for its next-generation AxEMU spacesuits. The gloves being tested in the chamber are the sixth iteration of a glove that NASA has been using since the 1980s on the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) suit used on the International Space Station for spacewalks. Although these gloves have performed poorly in CITADEL, indicating that they would not meet the lunar south pole's thermal requirements, results from the testing on the boots are yet to be fully analyzed.
"This test aims to identify the limits: How long can that glove or boot survive in the lunar environment? We're keen on quantifying what our capability gap is for the current hardware and providing that data to the Artemis suit vendor," said Shane McFarland, technology development lead for the Advanced Suit Team at NASA Johnson, in a statement. "We also want to develop this unique test capability to assess future hardware designs."
NASA's Artemis 3 mission is slated for a 2027 launch, sending astronauts on an exploratory journey to unexplored regions of the Moon. Let's hope these lunar explorers can keep warm in the dark and chilling south pole!
- The upcoming Artemis 3 mission by NASA, scheduled for a 2027 launch, will see astronauts don sleek, modern spacesuits, developed by partners including Axiom Space and Prada, for their exploratory journey to unexplored regions of the Moon.
- NASA is utilizing CITADEL, a cryogenic chamber, to test the new generation of spacesuits designed for Moon-bound astronauts, particularly focusing on the glove and boot performance in the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar south pole.
- CITADEL, a crucial testing facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is playing a significant role in the future of space exploration as it aids in evaluating the thermal requirements for the next-generation spacesuits, such as the AxEMU developed by Axiom Space.
- As climate conditions in the lunar south pole are incredibly harsh, with the temperature reaching an icy -414 degrees Fahrenheit (-248 degrees Celsius), the testing in CITADEL is essential for identifying the limits of current spacesuit hardware and developing criteria for future designs in the realm of health-and-wellness, space-and-astronomy, and technology.
