Development and Validation of a Multidisciplinary Spacesuit Model

In this paper, we develop a novel multidisciplinary spacesuit model. Many models exist for individual spacesuit subsystems, for example the thermal subsystem; however, no one model yet exists that incorporates all subsystems simultaneously. Although a partial understanding of the operation and performance of a spacesuit at the subsystem level can be attained using existing models, the spacesuit is a highly-interdependent, human-sized spacecraft, and an integrated model is needed to aid in the understanding, design, and operation of the spacesuit as a complex engineering system. First, we describe the overall operation of the model, then go into details of the four subsystems: thermal, structures, oxygen flow, and power. Next, we validate the model against the current U.S. spacesuit, the Extra-Vehicular Mobility Unit (EMU), at the system and subsystem level. This model is used in a companion paper to conduct multi-objective optimization. These results should prove useful in the design of the next-generation spacesuit.