Suitport and Tether Operational Simulations for the 2013 Haughton Mars Project

• Main Authors: Fort, James, Greene, Marc, Quinn, Gregory, Lee, Pascal
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 44th International Conference on Environmental Systems 2014
• Subjects: Canada; Devon Island; Greene
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2346/59697

The 44th International Conference on Environmental Systems was held in Tuscon, Arizona, USA on 13 July 2014 through 17 July 2014. James Fort, Hamilton Sundstrand Space Systems International, Inc., USA Marc Greene, Hamilton Sundstrand Space Systems International, Inc., USA Gregory Quinn, Hamilton Sundstrand Space Systems International, Inc., USA Pascal Lee, Mars Institute, USA UTC Aerospace Systems participated in the 2013 Haughton Mars Project field studies on Devon Island, Canada by testing a new version of their suitport concept and a novel suit tether system. The suitport concept integrated lessons learned from prior studies and upgraded the user interface to use pneumatic actuation. Pneumatic actuation of the suitport and other minor upgrades were successful in improving the donning and doffing process for most users. The tether system used an external waist bearing hooked to four retractable cables that were anchored in a square pattern to form a work area. These features allowed the test subject to conduct geological work without frequent re-clipping, nor unintended entanglement in the tethers.