"The Aouda suit team has been narrowing down a list of several hundred potential suit material candidates" explains Gernot Groemer (Austrian Space Forum) "down to a handful of excellent materials for laboratory testing."
The final choice has been a mixture between Panox and Kevlar with an aluminium coating which is vaporized onto the textile surface under vacuum conditions. This material, produced by a specialized company in Germany, is called "F 1120 AL" and is able to keep its mechanical protection even at temperatures as low as -80° - conditions, which the Aouda suit has to be qualified for. "The big advantage -from the contamination point of view is the smooth alumninum surface which reveals itself under the microscope, so soil particles will have a hard time of sticking onto the textile", Gernot Groemer comments on the qualification tests, "however, we do not know much about the adhesive behaviour of the -potentially contaminated - surface dust, yet." Hence, the next development steps will be to use a modified JSC1a Martian soil simulant to analyse the conditions under which the coating might retain part of the environmental dust grains.
Back to silverish spacesuits: Aouda outer layer material choosen
28. – 30. Nov. 2008
The outermost layer of a spacesuit has to serve a multitude of requirements, even if it is for a simulated spacesuit. Especially, when beside technical border conditions, such as excellent mechanical protection, thermal issues and low electric conductivity also biological properties play an important role.
PolAres Schedule Update
15. June 2012: Deadline Announcement of Opportunity MARS2013 25.-27. Oct. 2012: 3rd Conference on Terrestial Mars Analogues 01 - 28. February 2013: Morocco Mars Simulation
Between 01 - 28. February 2013, the Austrian Space Forum will conduct an integrated Mars analog field simulation in the northern Sahara near Erfoud, Morocco. Directed by a Mission Support Center in Austria, a small field crew will conduct experiments preparing for future human Mars missions mainly in the fields of engineering, planetary surface operations, astrobiology, geophysics/geology, life sciences and other.
This field mission is supported by the Ibn-Battuta-Center at the University of Marrakesh, Morocco. The Austrian Space Forum now solicitates proposals to be reviewed by a selection panel. The deadline for submissions is 15. June 2012, the announcement of the successful experiments will be released on 15. July 2012.
Detail
The analysis of Mars analogue environments on Earth is of paramount importance for the interpretation of the data from past, present and future orbital and landed missions, as well as mission planning (both robotic and human). Sedimentary environments in particular attract strong interest because they can retain the palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental history of the planet and under the right conditions may harbour fossil or present life signatures.
Date: 25. - 27. October 2012
Location: Conference Centre of the Hotel Meridien N'Fis at Marrakech, Morocco Organization: European Space Agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, International Association of Sedimentologits, Ibn Battuta Centre, IRSPS, Universite Cadi Ayyad.
Between 01 - 28. February 2013, the Austrian Space Forum will conduct an integrated Mars analog field simulation in the northern Sahara near Erfoud, Morocco. Directed by a Mission Support Center in Austria, a small field crew will conduct experiments preparing for future human Mars missions mainly in the fields of engineering, planetary surface operations, astrobiology, geophysics/geology, life sciences and other.
