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The demands of future NASA exploration and scientific missions in space force the reevaluation of some of the basic assumptions and approaches that underlie current extravehicular activity (EVA) systems. Developing designs that can simultaneously achieve the advanced capabilities and the reductions in system mass and mission expendables targeted by NASA has proven to be a formidable challenge. The constraints of human needs, space environments, and current EVA system architectures demand technical capabilities beyond current expectations to achieve system goals. Under NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) sponsorship, Hamilton Sundstrand has been studying a new system paradigm to achieve the EVA system goals. The Chameleon Suit concept employs an active pressure suit that directly interacts between human systems and space environments.

The purification of waste water is a critical element of any long-duration space mission. The Vapor Phase Catalytic Ammonia Removal (VPCAR) system offers the promise of a technology requiring low quantities of expendable material that is suitable for exploration missions. NASA has funded an effort to produce an engineering development unit specifically targeted for integration into the NASA Johnson Space Center's Integrated Human Exploration Mission Simulation Facility (INTEGRITY) formally known in part as the Bioregenerative Planetary Life Support Test Complex (Bio-Plex) and the Advanced Water Recovery System Development Facility. The system includes a Wiped-Film Rotating-Disk (WFRD) evaporator redesigned with micro-gravity operation enhancements, which evaporates wastewater and produces water vapor with only volatile components as contaminants. Volatile contaminants, including organics and ammonia, are oxidized in a catalytic reactor while they are in the vapor phase.

An important, though often unstated, requirement to achieve NASA’s strategic goals will be an Extravehicular Activity (EVA) system that will let future astronauts work safely and effectively at the chosen destinations without imposing unacceptable burdens on the astronauts or the mission systems that support them. Past studies have shown that this may present an insurmountable challenge if pursued with current technologies and system design concepts. With funding from the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC), Hamilton Sundstrand has been studying a conceptual architecture for future EVA systems to meet this challenge. The Chameleon Suit concept shifts the EVA design paradigm from one in which the pressure garment and life support system are separate, largely independent subsystems to one in which the EVA system integrates distributed life support functions with the pressure suit.