The prototype for a Mars Spacesuit Aouda.X was tested at -110°C on the 21st of September in a cryo-therapy chamber in Seefeld (Tyrol).

"We were all relieved when our prototype for a spacesuit did so well in this test - after all the hard preparation work." said project leader Gernot Grömer after the tests under extreme conditions. "Until the last minute we went through a lot of different scenarios that could go wrong: We expected condensation on the electronic devices, fractures in the PMMA-Visor, even frostbite on exposed body parts of our suit tester - and more." "But Aouda has done its job extremely well. Apart from a few start problem concerning the communication between the telemetry consoles and the suit." explains Klaus Bickert, team leader for the On-Board Data handling from the PolAres programme of the Austrian Space Forum.

The test series lasted for three hours in different cryo chambers at -10, -60 and finally -110°C. The Alpine-medical Hotel Lamm in Seefeld owns those chambers, which are large enough to fit not only the suit tester but also some assistance personnel. In the coldest chamber the test lasted for 22minutes. As there were no noticeable changes within the suit, the test was stopped after this time to preserve the energy system of the suit.

As a thin layer of ice developed even with heating and air condition due to high humidity in the helmet, it was only taken off after reaching a surface temperature of 10°C after testing. This also was enough time for the layer of ice on top of the textile parts of the suit to melt away. Suit tester Ulrich Luger: "The temperatures during the tests were surprisingly comfortable - if you could forget about the 35kg of weight, plus the Exo-skeleton..." - So at least in terms of cold resistance Aouda.X did a huge step towards Mars...

"Who doesn’t envision to one day be walking on Mars? The troubles involved in getting and staying there should by then hopefully be greatly mitigated. One of the unsolved problems that we would currently encounter on Mars is dust. The Martian dust is highly adhesive to any surface through electrostatic processes – that is, charged micro-particles connecting to a material, such as a spacesuit. Martian dust has the potential to crucially abrade surfaces and threaten human health. Moreover, it is intensely sticky.

Update on an upgrade: Aouda.X is currently being prepared for the upcoming glacier tests at the Pasterze region in Austria. A team of engineers of the Austrian Space Forum and students from the Technical School Fulpmes are focussing on getting Aouda.X ready for her first tests in a remote location.

So what's new in comparison with the comissioning tests in Kramsach in early July 2009? - Well, first there is a new team member, at least a virtual one: MARVIN stands for "Mars Analogue Research Versatile Information Network" and is the software agent behind the data analysis. "At this moment, it is only able to interpret a few basic measurement data and have it transferred from the sensors to the central processing unit and -via 5 GHz wireless LAN - to the operations console, OPS for short", explains Stefan Hauth. "However, the intriguing thing is, that MARVIN will be expanded into a much more powerful and versatile field assistent which shall help the astronaut to accomplish great field science under very safe conditions."

"Building a spacesuit simulator is a very demanding and highly interdisciplinary task", project manager Gernot Groemer adds, "we have a bunch of very talented young people and experienced staff members here at the Technical School and we're all learning here a lot while we proceed with the upgrade programme."

Aouda.X  -named after the indian princess from Jules Vernes' novel "Around the world in 80 days"- will be outfitted with new mechanical boot and glove interfaces, including a boot heater system. Why that? "Well, there's a really COOL test we're going to run in a few weeks from now", Stefan Hauth, "although we cannot reveal to many details yet, it seems we've found a very unusual partner to do perform an deep temperature operational test with Aouda.X."  - So stay tuned!

As of 29th of July 2009, 17:02, the Aouda On-Board Data Handling System is alive: in a first OBDH integration session Klaus Bickert, the team leader of the Aouda OBDH group (assisted by Sebastian Sams (Aouda OBDH), Christoph Lindner (HTL Anichstrasse) and Aouda project manager Gernot Groemer) was able to obtain the first sign-of-life from the central processor, a Toradex Robin Z510 based on Intel Atom Z510 1.1GHz.

"As small as it may seem (getting a mainboard to work)" Gernot Groemers stated, "this is nevertheless a pivotal moment in the development of Aouda. Besides a few voltage glitches and an initial problem with the memory card reader the first test went pretty smooth. We are fairly excited to finally see the functional processor for our prototype suit. Metaphorically speaking, this could be interpreted as the first "Brain wave" of Aouda - so let's hope for a smooth birth during the comissioning between 1.-3. July 2009 in Kramsach in a marble pit resembling the rocky surface of Mars."

If all things work out as planned, there will be a live coverage via Webcast directly from the test site during the first steps of the spacesuit simulator onWednesday, July 7th around 10 or 11 a.m..

1 2 3

Articles 1 - 6 of 16 :