The Design and Development of an Extravehicular, Stratospheric Exploration (StratEx) Pressure Suit

摘要

In October of 2014 a Stratospheric Exploration (StratEx) technical team comprised ofILC Dover, Paragon Space Development Corporation (SDC), and United ParachuteTechnologies (UPT) demonstrated an extravehicular pressure suit capable of prolongedexposure to stratospheric conditions by successfully launching, loitering, and recovering amanned StratEx suit to stratospheric, or near stratospheric altitudes, on three separateoccasions. This paper will discuss the design and development of the pressure suit portion ofthe flight system including the challenges associated with loads management, environmentalcontrol, pilot accessibility of control systems, and design for rapid system turnaround.Component and system level testing is reviewed and lessons learned, along with suggestionsfor future flight systems, are presented.