Development and Test of a Spacesuit Informatics System for Moon, Mars, and Further Deep-Space Exploration

Today, crewmembers use paper cuff checklists, a 12-digit LED display, and oversight from Mission Control to attain mission situational awareness. As humans explore deeper into space and expand our presence outside of low Earth orbit, the demand for on-location situational awareness independent of Earth operations grows substantially. In the case of Mars exploration, real-time oversight and communication from Mission Control are not possible. These future crews will need to have cognizance of suit and consumable status; location, terrain, and heading for navigation; personal and team biometric information; access to procedures, checklists, and data; and the ability to review and record field notes, among other capabilities. Collins Aerospace is developing an Information Technologies and Informatics Subsystem (IT IS) that includes these features to provide intuitive, Earth-independent situational awareness to astronauts. The IT IS uses an in-helmet head-up display (HUD) and a natural language interface (NLI) for instinctive, convenient interaction between the crewmember and the spacesuit. Human-robotic collaboration capabilities were also added to aid in exploration and sample collection. By combining Ntention�s Interaction Framework and associated Astronaut Smart Glove (ASG) with the Collins� IT IS, a new multi-modal Astronaut Interaction System (AIS) was generated that allows crewmembers to use robotic assets through verbal commands and physical gestures. During the 2021 Haughton Mars Project (HMP) field campaign, these systems were integrated into an analog spacesuit and tested in a relevant environment. This paper reports on the need for an informatics suite and interaction system, providing a brief review of informatics testing at HMP that preceded the 2021 field tests, a statement of the 2021 HMP test objectives, a description of the technologies enabling the fielded solution, and the results of the field tests.