Improved Environmental Protection Garment (IEPG) Fabric

SBIR Phase II proposal to develop active dust mitigation spacesuit fabrics that provide micrometeroid protection at 25% weight savings using engineered materials. Current Extra-vehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) suits do not provide protection against abrasive lunar dust because their fabric construction attracts and retains dust Force Engineerings SBIR Phase I developed an innovative shell fabric and Environmental Protection Garment (EPG) construction using high-strength conductive fiber textiles to provide lightweight environmental and micrometeroid protection with active and passive dust mitigation at 25% weight savings. SBIR Phase II conducts system design and testing to confirm environmental protection and to refine and optimize active dust mitigation using conductive textiles to actively manage the electrical charge of the suit to match operating environment charge state, or actively repel dust using microprocessor control to tailored charge states of the suit to repel dust. Force Engineering combines several well-developed technologies into a practical outer layer design, which will provide excellent protection from dust, fire, thermal, ultraviolet (UV) radiation, impact penetration and cut/puncture. The new garment protection system will be integrated to minimize weight and maximize flexibility such as to not prohibit, degrade, or interfere with the use of equipment. Full scale prototypes will be fabricated for puncture, dust, and abrasion tests as well as hyper-velocity impact testing to confirm micrometeroid protection. Conductive spacesuits fabrics solve the electrostatic charge dust attraction problem that has attracted dust to previous and current spacesuits. Integrating conductive e Textiles with redundant flexible circuit paths into the micro meteoroid protection system creates a multi functional fabric that provides protection, dissipates electrostatic charge, mitigates dust, and the provides the ability to actively charge or change spacesuit polarity. e Textiles provide future capability to move power and data across the entire fabric structure to enable the integration of embedded sensor networks for astronautic bio metric sensing and health monitoring as well monitoring the health and integrity of the spacesuit itself. EMU 25% weight savings goal met using advanced materials high-strength fibers in novel woven and non-woven architectures. Dust mitigation goals met by conductive fabrics and coatings that dissipate electrostatic charge. Performance improvements and materials selections validated with actual hardware test on prototype fabric samples. Demonstrate 25% weight savings and improved performance of an improved Environmental Protection Garment (IEPG) fabric that combines conductive textile and laminated textile technologies. Demonstrate dust mitigation improvement (>50% reduction in dust cling) using conductive fabrics and coatings to dissipate electrostatic charge and for active electrostatic dust mitigation. Determine electrostatic field parameters and surface energy to repel charged lunar particles,set system performance and repel dust using active electrostatic charge projected outward from suit surface. Demonstrate hypervelocity MMOD protection via full-scale test. SBIR Phase I IEPG construction demonstrated 25% lighter weight puncture and micrometeoroid protection in low velocity regime phase II demonstrates hypervelocity performance. Demonstrate improved abrasion resistance using high-hardness filler particles/fibers outer layer via. Confirm EPG/EMU functions via environmental tests. Quantify performance/materials/weight trades between woven, non-woven, laminated textiles for iEPG; down-select to preliminary design. Conduct system tests on preliminary design per NASA system specs. Deliverables: Data - Status Reports, Technical Report, Engineering Analysis, prototype IEPG constructions and test coupons, MMOD test results, environmental test results, dust mitigation system parameters and test results.
Benefits: Weight savings by creation of smart/multifunctional textile and composite products that enable lighter weight electronics, communication, and power transfer in a damage tolerant, redundant circuits. Astronaut health monitoring using eTextile. Improved spacesuit capability to integrate redundant textile-based sensor, power, data busses for a wired and continuously monitored astronaut and spacesuit. Ability to detect real-time degradation and damage to spacesuit, gloves, and other garments and to manage garment life, maintenance, and condition. Active dust/particle/microbe mitigation. Sensor and electronics integration in soldier body armor and other wearable gear to save weight. Wearable eTextile technology for commercial electronics and flexible electronics to create smart fabrics and integrate electronics and microprocessor capability into garments for productivity, entertainment, remote sensing medical diagnostics capability.