NASA faces further criticism and possible congressional hearing on space suit delays

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ORLANDO, Fla., Aug. 23 (UPI) – NASA faces fresh criticism over a recent agency monitoring report that the development of the space suit is so behind schedule that a look back at the moon would be delayed beyond a 2024 target.

Coupled with the high cost, estimated at $ 1 billion eventually, the development issues are serious enough to trigger a congressional hearing, U.S. Representative Don Beyer D-Va told UPI.

“I almost certainly think we need to schedule a hearing before the end of the year,” said Beyer, who chairs the House’s space and aeronautics subcommittee.

“We’ve already spent $ 420 million, and we don’t know where we’re going. We really need to make sure [Congress] provides the necessary oversight and accountability. ”

NASA’s Office of the Inspector General’s report, released on August 10, said delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, technical issues and lack of funding from Congress would make it impossible for an astronaut to land on the moon. ‘by 2024.

“I was quite disappointed with what the Inspector General found out,” Beyer said. “I don’t know where the blame is, but it is clear that we have a lot of ground to catch up.”

He said the pandemic and lack of funding was only part of the problem.

“It seems the biggest challenge has been not understanding the nature of the engineering task ahead and therefore sometimes looking for dead ends,” Beyer said.

U.S. Representative Bill Posey, R-Fla., Also expressed concern over the space suit report, and said a congressional hearing would provide a forum for NASA to further explain the issues.

“This raises important questions about the difficulty of these deep space exploration missions,” Posey, also a member of the subcommittee, said in an emailed statement. “NASA must provide leadership. to create cost-effective and safe astronaut equipment. and specific to the mission. ”

NASA showed a prototype of a new lunar spacesuit in 2019 at a press conference in Washington, DC, which featured a space suit designer wearing it. At the time, the agency said the design represented what astronauts would wear on upcoming Artemis lunar missions.

But NASA canceled that space suit program this year because it did not meet the needs of expanding the objectives of missions to the Moon and Mars, and issued a new request for information from potential contractors in space suits on July 27. solutions.

The Inspector General’s office said in its report that the new demand has expanded the scope of space suit design so much that contractors could respond with suits that would only be usable on the International Space Station and not on the International Space Station. moon, or vice versa, which “may not turn out to be profitable.”

In response, NASA agreed to revise a preliminary request for proposals to ensure the design could be used in various missions.

Delaware-based company ILC Dover, a contractor on every spacesuit since the Apollo era half a century ago, delivered the prototype that NASA presented at the 2019 press conference, Dan Klopp said. , director of business development for the company’s space systems division. .

After that, NASA decided to work on the prototype internally, “against our advice,” until this spring, Klopp said.

“NASA engineers (…) have encountered many problems, not the least of which is the lack of expertise in space suit engineering,” he said.

Although NASA did manage to put a woman in the suit for the press conference, this prototype was not designed to fit as many body types as NASA really needs today, said Patty Stoll, President of Space Systems and Engineering Solutions at ILC Dover.

“Since then, ILC Dover has created a new wetsuit, which we call Astro, which can fit 95% of male and female body shapes and sizes, so we’re confident that’s something NASA wants. “said Stoll.

The company’s new Astro suit could be modified by astronauts in space, eliminating a costly delay that NASA sometimes encounters when it has to send new spacesuits into orbit to accommodate the unique shapes and sizes of the astronaut corps, she said.

The new design is made more complex by NASA’s current plan to stay at the International Space Station until 2030, go to the moon by 2024, and possibly send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s. , she said.

“With the space suit at the space station, you don’t have a lot of mobility in the lower torso, because it’s not as necessary for spacewalks,” Stoll said. “But if you walk on the moon or on Mars, you’re going to bounce a bit and perform tasks where you want to bend over.”

ILC Dover is among dozens of entrepreneurs who have expressed interest in the new space suit development program. Others are SpaceX, Blue Origin, Collins Aerospace, Honeywell Aerospace, Raytheon, and Sierra Space, according to federal contracting records.

The lack of Congressional funding for faster development of new space suits during the Space Shuttle era likely caused delays, said Pablo de Len, president of space studies at the University of North Dakota.

“These spacesuits have seen very little improvement since the 1970s,” he said. “They were supposed to be updated in the 1990s, but it never happened back then, and now we’ve been dragging this issue for 30 years.”

One cause for hope for the future is that 3D printing can speed up the ability to manufacture spacesuits, said de Len.

Another major challenge has been to reduce the mass or weight of the new space suits for the Moon or Mars, both of which have gravity, said Brad Holschuh, assistant professor and co-director of the Wearable Technology Lab at the University of Minnesota. .

“The suit is both a life support and a mobility system, but these requirements often conflict with each other. For example, the suit needs to be pressurized with oxygen… but this stiffens the materials. the suit, which hinders mobility, ”Holschuh said. .

NASA’s spending on space suit development over the past 14 years has been critical to industry innovations, many of which will be incorporated into the new suits, said Sandra Jones, NASA’s public affairs manager, in an email.

“The safety of astronauts is a priority, and the agency balances technical and planning risks to ensure the successful development of the next-generation space suit and the implementation of Artemis within current budget constraints,” said Jones writes.

NASA plans to release the new final request for proposals on space suits this fall.

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Moghbeli poses for a portrait in the International Space Station Systems Engineering Simulator and Advanced Space Flight Programs at Johnson Space Center on July 9, 2019. She will be training for the lunar mission. Photo by Bill Ingalls / NASA

Jessica watkins

Watkins is helped in a spacesuit before underwater spacewalk training at the Johnson Space Center on May 22, 2019. She will be training for the lunar mission. Photo by David DeHoyos / NASA

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Barron dons her space suit in Houston on July 12, 2019. She will be training for the lunar mission. Photo by Bill Ingalls / UPI

Kate rubins

Rubins is preparing for a spacewalk aboard the International Space Station on August 10, 2016. She will be training for the lunar mission. Photo courtesy of NASA

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Koch collects and packages Mizuna mustard greens grown and harvested inside the International Space Station Plant Botany Facility on November 13, 2019. She will be training for the lunar mission. Photo courtesy of NASA

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Expedition 59 astronaut McClain is helped out of the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft just minutes after landing in a remote area near the city of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on June 25, 2019. She will be training for the lunar mission. Photo by Bill Ingalls / NASA

Stephanie Wilson

Wilson poses for a portrait at the Johnson Space Center on July 11, 2019. She will be training for the lunar mission. Photo by Bill Ingalls / NASA

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Meir sits for her portrait in an extravehicular mobility unit, the suit used for spacewalks, on September 11, 2018. She will be training for the lunar mission. Photo by Josh Valcarcel / NASA

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Tracy Caldwell Dyson

Dyson stops for a portrait in his spacesuit before going underwater in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on July 8, 2019. Photo by Bill Ingalls / UPI

Loral O’Hara

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Zena Cardman

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Sunita williams

Expedition 32 Flight Engineer and Expedition 33 Commander Williams participates in the space suit fit check at Johnson Space Center on September 8, 2011. Photo courtesy of NASA

Jeanette Epps

Epps sits for her portrait on September 30, 2009. Photo by Robert Markowitz / NASA

Megan McArthur

McArthur poses for a portrait on the mobile launcher’s crew access arm at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 25, 2019. Photo by Joel Kowsky / NASA

Shannon walker

Walker welcomes viewers to the Johnson Space Center to watch live coverage of the Expedition 40/41 launch as it takes place in Baikonur, Kazakhstan on May 28, 2014. The crew can be seen on the screen nearby. Photo courtesy of NASA

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