Dépêches

SwRI Flyers First to Evaluate Pressure Suits During Simulated Suborbital Launches in Centrifuge

Dépèche transmise le 9 novembre 2011 par Business Wire

BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Two researchers set to fly aboard suborbital spacecraft as a part of Southwest Research Institute’s next-generation suborbital research program completed another milestone last week when they evaluated commercial spaceflight equipment during an intensive series of centrifuge runs that closely mimicked launches and re-entries aboard suborbital spacecraft.

“We’re breaking new ground with this type of evaluation — it’s more realistic and higher intensity than any suborbital launch exercise taken previously by any person or company in the world to date”

Dr. S. Alan Stern and Dr. Dan Durda traveled to the National AeroSpace Training and Research Center (NASTAR) outside Philadelphia for evaluations in the NASTAR STS-400 High Performance Human Centrifuge. Stern and Durda organized the first class of researchers that received training at NASTAR Center in early 2010. Now they are the first to have evaluated commercial pressure suits under G in the same centrifuge.

“We’re breaking new ground with this type of evaluation — it’s more realistic and higher intensity than any suborbital launch exercise taken previously by any person or company in the world to date,” says SwRI Principal Investigator Stern.

In total, Stern and Durda undertook 20 NASTAR centrifuge runs using the suits on Nov. 2, some reaching the 6-G accelerations that many suborbital launches will create. The Contingency Hypobaric Astronaut Protective Suits (CHAPS) incorporate advanced materials to allow for a lightweight, comfortable and highly functional pressure suit system. The suits are manufactured by the David Clark Company.

Technical papers describing the goals, experiences and results of the high-G training runs by Stern and Durda will be given at the 2012 Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC-2012) in Palo Alto, Calif., in late February. For more information about NSRC-2012, go to http://nsrc.swri.org or contact Constantine Tsang at (720) 208-7202 ([email protected]). The early/discounted registration and abstract deadlines for NSRC-2012 are nearing — both fall on Dec. 2, 2011.

For more information about SwRI’s suborbital program and flight crew training, contact Alan Stern at (303) 324-5269 ([email protected]) or Dan Durda at (303) 546-9670 ([email protected]).

Images to accompany this story: http://swri.org/press/2011/pressure-suit.htm.

About SwRI:

SwRI is an independent, nonprofit, applied research and development organization based in San Antonio, Texas, with more than 3,000 employees and an annual research volume of more than $564 million. Southwest Research Institute and SwRI are registered marks in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. For more information about Southwest Research Institute, please visit newsroom.swri.org or www.swri.org.