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During the first two weeks of September, 2006, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Johnson Space Center (JSC) Advanced Extra Vehicular Activity (AEVA) team led the field test portion of the 2006 Desert Research and Technology Studies (D-RATS) in the Flagstaff, AZ area. The Desert RATS field test activity is the year-long culmination of various individual science and advanced engineering discipline areas’ technology and operations development efforts into a coordinated field test demonstration under representative (analog) planetary surface terrain conditions. The 2006 Desert RATS was the ninth RATS field test and was the largest, most systems-oriented, integrated field test to date with participants from seven NASA field centers, three industry partners, and two research organizations. Each week of the test, RATS addressed specific sets of objectives. The first week of field testing focused on Lunar surface science and in-situ resource utilization tasks.

With a renewed focus on manned exploration, NASA is beginning to prepare for the challenges that lie ahead. Future manned missions will require a symbiosis of human and robotic infrastructure. As a step towards understanding the roles of humans and robots in future planetary exploration, NASA headquarters funded ILC Dover and the University of Maryland to perform research in the area of human and robotic interfaces. The research focused on development and testing of communication components, robotic command and control interfaces, electronic displays, EVA navigation software and hardware, and EVA lighting. The funded research was a 12-month effort culminating in a field test with NASA personnel.

Advanced space suit mobility studies were successfully conducted during the period of May 2-17, 1998, under representative Lunar and Mars-like terrain conditions at remote field site locations in the Flagstaff, Arizona, area. The sites visited included Cinder Lake, a volcanic ash area that was an actual Apollo-era test site with simulated craters developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS); SP Mountain, an area that contained a young lava field with extensive rock rubble; Grand Falls, a canyon area that contained a variety of rock outcroppings, volcanic ash, and rock rubble; and Meteor Crater, a young impact crater area that contained various slopes with loose rock rubble. The test activities were supported by a team of JSC personnel utilizing the MK III advanced space suit technology demonstrator suit and a NASA modified commercial liquid air backpack system. The suit test subject was Dr. Dean Eppler, a trained field geologist.