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Active TRL 1 (started at 1, targeting 2)
Mars surface missions will require crew to perform frequent, physically and cognitively demanding a ExtraVehicular Activities (EVAs) in a gravity environment more than twice that of the Moon, following extended exposure to microgravity during transit. Current suit and hardware capabilities are not yet aligned with the expected operational demands and physiological challenges of Martian surface Crew Health and Performance/Spacesuits exploration. Mars EVA suit requirements remain undefined and must be driven by a comprehensive understanding of human capabilities and limitations in the Martian environment.
To address this gap, the Anthropometry, Injury Biomechanics, and Ergonomics Laboratory (AIBEL), in collaboration with suit and a Portable Life Support System (PLSS) engineers, will work to provide data and analyses to develop and refine the requirements, suit design constraints, and technologies necessary for future Mars exploration. Collaboration between AIBEL and PLSS Engineers is essential to developing an EVA suit that both meets the demands for science and exploration objective completion on the Martian surface and is sufficiently operable by the entire crew population across all potential states of fatigue and physiological deconditioning. Coordination between teams will be assisted by a new SK & EC working group.
The primary objective is to provide data to determine the primary human factors that will drive a Mars Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (MxEMU) mass in order to inform design requirements and engineering decisions. By the end of Fiscal Year (FY) 26, this data will be integrated and analyzed to establish an initial mass range. Lunar exploration suits currently do not have a direct suit mass on back requirement. Therefore, new methodology will need to be developed for this work and take potential suit architecture differences between Lunar and Mars suits into consideration.
These objectives will be accomplished through the following aims:
Strategy Aims:
Aim 1: Gather and curate Mars suit requirement relevant studies, data and background information
Aim 2: Host a series of meetings and retreats to lay out the work required to close the gap on Mars suit requirement definition and complete associated technology development
Aim 3: Draft the plan to include the number of work plans that will be anticipated, the primary tasks required, a map of the task to the requirements, and a schedule of tasks indicating requirement definition completion
Suit Mass and Performance Aims:
Aim 4: Map driving factors of MxEMU mass and their dependencies (collaboration with working group).
Aim 5: Design a task assessment(s) that will collect the necessary data to evaluate acceptable MxEMU masses from ergonomics and physiological perspectives in performing key EVA tasks, across a wide range of potential crew anthropometry. These task assessments may be individual test series or be added on to existing test series where possible.
Aim 6: Evaluate experimental results with working group to provide actionable guidance for Pressure Garment System (PGS) and Portable Life Support System (PLSS) engineering teams to support the development of Mars-specific mass requirements and suit design parameters. FY26 outcome will be a range of acceptable MxEMU masses based on available data.
Aim 7: Develop requirements for model-based analyses to evaluate how variations in suit mass affect EVA performance and injury risk. Analyses will drive refinements to MxEMU mass limit in FY27+.
Note that the suit mass limit delivered in FY26 will have added uncertainty after re-scoping the project and moving the completion of the model analyses to a following year. Uncertainty factors in the mass limit will be outlined, along with proposed steps to address them. This re-scoping also adds an additional risk to the mass limit delivery with the increased reliance on suited testing that is dependent on facilities and suit scheduling.
Data gathered under this work plan will also be able to provide additional inputs to update Crew State and Risk Model (CSRM) and other Mars simulation efforts to help define requirement values and guide ConOps considerations.
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