Browsing by Author "Bellisle, Rachel"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Countermeasure Suits for Spaceflight
(2020 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2020-07-31) Bellisle, Rachel; Newman, Dava
In the past decade, there has been a renewed effort to develop countermeasure suits for spaceflight, largely through the Gravity Loading Countermeasure Skinsuit, or “Skinsuit”. Upcoming missions to the moon and Mars, will require unprecedented lengths of time in reduced gravity and necessitate further consideration of countermeasures to address physiological adaptations to reduced gravity during missions of several months or years. While countermeasures for bone and muscle loss currently exist on the International Space Station (ISS) in the form of exercise machines, these do not completely eliminate the debilitating effects of microgravity, and they are too large and massive for long-duration missions to Mars due to expected vehicle physical space constraints. Wearable countermeasures could address this problem by providing alternative or supplementary countermeasures. The Pingvin suit, developed in the 1970s, is a wearable countermeasure suit that aims to reduce muscle and bone loss in cosmonauts. However, it is often ineffective due to discomfort and the resulting inconsistency in wearing protocols. The Skinsuit is a more recent development in wearable countermeasure technology. This skin-tight garment provides an axial load on the skeleton to simulate the skeletal loading provided by gravity, with goals to reduce spinal elongation and bone loss, among other proposed advantages. The Skinsuit has evolved through multiple design revisions to ensure comfort, mobility, and feasibility for extended periods of wear. The function of the suit has also been tested through ground experiments, partial gravity analogs, parabolic flights, and ISS missions. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the Skinsuit and briefly highlights the Russian Pingvin Suit, the Dynasuit, the Torso Compression Harness, and the Variable Vector Countermeasure Suit.
High Performance Mechanical Counter Pressure Spacesuit Glove for Martian Surface Exploration
(51st International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2022-07-10) Schauss, Gabriella; Bellisle, Rachel; Kothakonda, Akshay; Newman, Dava; Anderson, Allison
Future human exploration of Mars will rely on planetary surface extravehicular activity (EVA) for a majority of scientific tasks that enable the search for life. Mechanical counter pressure (MCP) offers solutions to current limitations of a traditional gas pressure suit including increasing mobility, decreasing metabolic work, increasing safety, while allowing for custom spacesuit fit to decrease injuries. In this paper, we design and develop a MCP glove using 3D knitting fabrication techniques to assess the feasibility of relying on MCP to apply uniform pressure on the hand. A glove is used as a proof of concept since hand anthropometry includes more degrees-of-freedom of movement than the entire rest of the body, and limited glove mobility was the most significant EVA challenge for lunar astronauts. From strain models and patterning methods, novel textile structure can be designed to allow for consistent pressure across the entire hand during both dynamic and static states. Seamless knitting allows for a customizable fit, complex patterning, and rapid prototyping that is imperative to continued advancement of the state of the art to enable the advantages of MCP to come to fruition. This work aims to develop and validate a MCP glove that applies 2 psi of uniform pressure on the hand using novel textile fabrication techniques to advance the development of a life support system and continuing to understand the boundaries of future spacesuit architecture for surface exploration.
The Mk-7 Gravity Loading Countermeasure Skinsuit: Evaluation of Insole Pressure and Load Distribution
(2023 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2023-07-16) Ortiz, Ciarra; Bellisle, Rachel
The Gravity Loading Countermeasure Skinsuit (GLCS or “Skinsuit”) is an intravehicular activity suit for astronauts that simulates the effects of Earth’s gravity to combat muscle atrophy and spinal elongation through the application of axial load on the body using material tension. Currently, the Mark (Mk)-7 GLCS provides approximately 30% bodyweight loading, and a quantitative analysis was performed to understand and characterize the loading profiles. In this study, the pressure distributed across the insole was analyzed during locomotion in suited and unsuited conditions. The spatial load distribution over the sole of the foot was measured to identify any over- or under-pressurization compared to typical 1 g insole loading, which provides crucial sensorimotor feedback to foot mechanoreceptors. A pilot study was conducted on one participant wearing the Skinsuit on the Moonwalker, a partial gravity simulator, to investigate the load generated by the GLCS while running for 60-second intervals in 0.17 g, 0.38 g, and 1 g. An insole pressure-sensing system measured insole pressure distribution across multiple gait cycles, separated by heel strikes. To examine foot profile loading, pressure on the toes, metatarsals, midfoot, and heel were extracted from recorded insole data measurements. While this study is limited to one participant, the initial results show that the GLCS increases insole loading compared to unsuited conditions, supporting the goal of reloading the body towards 1 g loading conditions. The results of this study assess the Skinsuit’s ability to return some load onto the participant when experiencing differing partial gravities and determine how close the GLCS is to approaching a load equivalent to Earth’s gravity.
Variable Stiffness Soft Knee Exoskeleton for Advanced Space Suits and Planetary Exploration: Energetics Evaluation
(51st International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2022-07-10) Porter, Allison; Arquilla, Katya; McGaa, Nicole; Harvey, Alvin; Bellisle, Rachel; Newman, Dava; Stankovic, Aleksandra
Stiff joints in gas-pressurized space suits have restricted mobility and increase the risk of injury in astronauts during extravehicular activity (EVA). Prior work by Carr and Newman in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Human Systems Laboratory has established that some level of knee joint stiffness may be beneficial in storing elastic energy, decreasing the metabolic expenditure during ambulation on planetary surfaces. Recently, an airbag-actuated soft knee exoskeleton (SKE) was developed to provide adjustable knee stiffness in parallel with the knee joint using airbag actuators. The SKE was designed to be integrated into the BioSuitTM, an advanced mechanical counterpressure space suit concept, to exert low levels of tunable stiffness to the knee joint to maximize energetics efficiency in suited EVAs during reduced gravity locomotion. In this proof-of-concept pilot study, the SKE is evaluated in a human participant study during hopping. Its impacts on metabolic energetics were assessed via VO2 and heart rate response. Participants completed a single-leg hopping protocol while wearing the inflated/stiff SKE which was compared to a non-exoskeleton/control condition. Metabolic expenditure during the trials was measured using a COSMED K5 metabolic cart system and Garmin chest-mounted heart rate sensor. The SKE V3 was demonstrated as a robust and durable proof-of-concept knee-stiffness exoskeleton during single-leg hopping. The results of this prototype indicate the promising operational feasibility of the SKE hardware. The pilot study investigating metabolic impacts showed that in some individuals the SKE V3 may beneficially impact metabolic expenditure indicators such as VO2 and HR, but the effects of trial order and fatigue should be further investigated to better understand the difference in outcomes between left and right leg hopping. Recommendations for future work include studies involving more participants, increased exercise duration, and other movement tasks motions to fully evaluate the metabolic expenditure impacts of the SKE V3.