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During the first two weeks of September 2007, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Johnson Space Center (JSC) Advanced Extravehicular Activity (AEVA) team led the field test portion of the 2007 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. The field test is conducted under representative (analog) planetary surface terrain conditions. The 2007 Desert RATS was the tenth RATS field test and was the most focused test to date with participants from seven NASA field centers, a variety of NASA support contractors, and one other government agency. The main test objective was to demonstrate two operational concepts for lunar outpost activities/assembly to inform future Constellation Architecture Team (CAT) studies.

Since the early 1980’s, the Shuttle Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) glove design has evolved to meet the challenge of space based tasks. These tasks have typically been satellite retrieval and repair or EVA based flight experiments. With the start of the International Space Station (ISS) assembly, the number of EVA based missions is increasing far beyond what has been required in the past; this has commonly been referred to as the “Wall of EVA’s”. To meet this challenge, it was determined that the evolution of the current glove design would not meet future mission objectives. Instead, a revolution in glove design was needed to create a high performance tool that would effectively increase crewmember mission efficiency. The results of this effort have led to the design, certification and implementation of the Phase VI EVA glove into the Shuttle flight program.