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we are here in uh building 32 which is

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where our chamber bee

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is one of the vacuum chambers we have

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here at johnson space center that's

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rated to be used by humans uh one of the

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ways that we simulate space here on

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earth and with us we've got christina

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enchando who is the test director for um

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some tests we've been doing with the z1

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space suit that we have here behind us

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and the suitport thanks so much for

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joining us christina thank you for

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having me how are you doing today i'm

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doing well good good um so

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obviously we're not at vacuum but we are

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in a vacuum chamber why don't we start

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there tell us what a vacuum chamber kind

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of does and and why we would do a test

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in it okay well we use the vacuum

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chambers to simulate space

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we will during a test we would remove

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all the air inside the chamber reducing

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the pressure inside just to get give us

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a feel for that the environment of space

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and there are multiple reasons why we

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would want to test in space one we want

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to make sure that our hardware

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will survive the environment of space

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and uh also for uh being able to get a

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fit uh a feel for the for the for the

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suit and how um how it would operate

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okay in a space-like environment so this

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okay let's kind of go one piece at a

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time here z1 suit this is the c1 suit

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new suit we're designing for exploration

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yes so we want to do different things

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when we go into future exploration

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on the space station you use your hands

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a lot for exploration if you're going to

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say an asteroid or mars you would be

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walking around a lot

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and that requires different space suits

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so we're working on a new design and

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then we also uh part of the design is

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that it would be incorporated with a

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space a suit port and tell us a little

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bit about a suit port what does that do

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well the suit port is the interface

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between your space vehicle and the

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exploration suit uh so this would the

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support allows you to quickly

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get into the suit and be ready for

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exploring

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so right here it looks kind of it's kind

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of against a wall but in real life in

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the future it would be on the end or on

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the outside of a vehicle a rover or a

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spaceship of some sort that's right this

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will be hanging off the back um outside

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while the crew the astronauts are inside

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and then they can open this part up

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right and then climb in from the back

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yes there's a hatch on the other side so

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you would open the hatch get inside

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close the hatch and then the

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the volume inside is equalized with the

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outside with the outside environment and

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that allows you to detach from the suit

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port and begin exploring okay and um

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let's see we were talking earlier about

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vacuum um obviously on the outside in

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space this part where we are now would

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be at a vacuum but inside it would be a

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little bit lower air pressure than we

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have on the space station that's about

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sea level it'd be lower because it's

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smaller volume we can keep it lower and

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then this is the same at the same air

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pressure which makes it quicker we don't

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have to do a pre-re-protocol like you've

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probably seen for spacewalks if you

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watch nasa tv right right okay um so

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tell us how the tests work what what

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what have you all been having

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done here what have we been doing this

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week uh so this is a different design of

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support so a couple of months ago we

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were testing a a support design that had

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clamps on it and they were actuated by a

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motor this support design does not use a

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motor it uses airbags and

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flippers

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and so it's it's seeming to its work

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it's been working very well um in order

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to undock from the support we'll put air

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into these airbags and the flippers

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would rotate into the undock position

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releasing the the subject so we've been

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kind of practicing that evaluating the

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suitport and at the same time evaluating

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the

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come out

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bend over see if they could

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adjust their boots

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and turn around inspect their support

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make sure everything's okay and practice

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re-docking to the suit port okay so

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you've had

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engineers and astronauts yes on the

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other side of this wall yes yes inside

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the suit we've had engineering test

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subjects as well as crew okay and they

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climb in and like you said just kind of

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do the

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lever to release themselves and walk

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away and then basically

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redo it and get back out yes so and that

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helps you just make sure that this this

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idea of the suit port works and yes it's

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it's to dem it's to demonstrate um

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pressurized donning of the suit for one

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so during the test the chamber is at

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reduced pressure creating a pressure

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differential across the suit

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so the the test subject would don a

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pressurized suit so we're evaluating how

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well that works because it's uh it's

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different it's different than what we do

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now

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and the other part of the evaluation is

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to just evaluate the donning the docking

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and undocking of the support

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in the pressurized suit so right now the

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suit is not pressurized the suit is not

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pressurized how is it different when it

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is it gets uh stiffer

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it'll start inflating like a like a

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balloon as we reduce the pressure

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and so that's something you really can't

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test outside of a vacuum chamber that's

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right and you want to know how that's

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going to work before you go into space

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definitely for the first time but

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everything's going well so far it is

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it's been it's been going very well

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we're very excited we've had uh two uh

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test subjects come through this week and

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we expect three more next

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and i think this is kind of the the

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final milestone of the year for y'all

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right yes and

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kind of all of your work's been leading

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up to proving that the support works and

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and we think that it does right yes so

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hopefully we'll be seeing that in the