Flame Retardant Polyamide Fibers for Space Crew Clothing

NASAs vision is to eventually establish human outpost stations on the Moon and explore Mars and other destinations further out of the Lower Earth Orbit (LEO). During these space missions, astronauts need to be protected inside space vehicles and space habitats with an atmosphere of 36% oxygen at a pressure of 8.2 psi. To address this need, intrinsically flame-retardant (FR) halogen-free polyamide fibers and fabrics were developed for space crew clothing during the Phase I project. FR polymers were melt spun into multi-filament yarns and knitted into flexible FR textile fabrics. The knitted FR fabrics demonstrated a V-0 grade in the standard UL-94 testing. In the proposed Phase II effort, the FR polyamide polymer developed in the Phase I effort will be optimized to improve the FR property and scaled-up for producing close-to-skin garments for crews in future space missions.

The ultimate value of this innovation is comfortable, durable FR textiles for extended space flight. The new next-to-the-skin flame-retardant fabrics can be used in NASA programs like the lunar Human Landing System (HLS), Orion, Gateway, and Artemis. The FR fabrics developed in this project will allow the astronauts to function in the oxygen-rich atmosphere such as habitats, pressurized rovers, and other space vehicles.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 4) — 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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