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Active TRL 3 (started at 2, targeting 6)
Develop several Environmental Protection Garment (EPG) material solutions that can be used to mitigate the near-term robustness risks of the xEVAS vendor suit and gloves not being designed for sustained lunar EVAs. This development would include unique evaluation of several concepts to increase material robustness including, but not limited to: new materials (fiber, yarn, fabrics and coatings) and fabrication (weave, finger seams, heater switch, etc). This project will focus on gloves and arms, however, material development is extensible to generic suit EPG for moon, and even Mars.
Key tasks include:
1. Testing of COTS and custom fabric formulations
2. Development of custom fabric with academia and industry textile prototyping partners
3. In-house maturation of dust-proof EPG designs for system level testing
4. Testing of fabrics in dusty vacuum glovebox and cryogenic thermal vacuum chamber at JPL
Extend durability of EVA suit material in sustained lunar EVAs.
Listed on TechPort itself — the most direct way to ask about this specific project.
This is early/mid-stage (TRL 3) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.
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