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The existing Shuttle Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) has served NASA well for sometime, however, it uses a large amount of consumables including water, O2 and lithium hydroxide. In order for extended missions to the Moon and Mars to be successful, two new portable life support systems (PLSS) designs have been proposed that will minimize the amount of consumables used and will be more reliable due to simplified designs. This paper considers one such PLSS, currently designated the Cryogenic-PLSS (CPLSS). The reason for this designation is because it uses liquid O2 to provide the breathing gas for the astronaut and to provide backup cooling for the astronaut. In order to understand how the system will function in space and to evaluate final design parameters, a transient thermal model has been developed using the software package MATLAB/Simulink.

A transient model of the Minimum Consumables Portable Life Support System (MPLSS) Advanced Space Suit design has been developed and implemented using MAT-LAB/Simulink. The purpose of the model is to help with sizing and evaluation of the MPLSS design and aid development of an automatic thermal comfort control strategy. The MPLSS model is described, a basic thermal comfort control strategy implemented, and the thermal characteristics of the MPLSS Advanced Space Suit are investigated.

The NASA JSC Shuttle EMU computer model (SINDA EMU) is presently used to analyze the thermal behavior of the Space Shuttle EMU. This paper uses the SINDA EMU model along with EMU experimental and flight data to investigate and define several performance characteristics of the Space Shuttle EMU related to thermal comfort control.