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WASHINGTON – The spacesuits that NASA astronauts will need to walk on the moon will not be ready in time to meet a moon landing target in 2024, the NASA Inspector General has concluded.
In an August 10 report, NASA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) said the next-generation spacesuit the agency is developing for the Artemis program, known as the Extravehicular Mobility Unit d exploration (xEMU), will not be ready for flight until at least April 2025, and may be subject to further delays.
“Given these anticipated delays in the development of space suits, a lunar landing at the end of 2024, as NASA currently predicts, is not feasible,” OIG said in its report. He added, however, that other factors, such as delays in the development of the space launch system, Orion and the Human Landing System (HLS), “will also prevent a landing in 2024”.
The report identified several factors behind the delay, such as technical issues, funding gaps, and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. While NASA spent $ 420.1 million on new space suit designs since the Constellation program in 2007, and about $ 625 million more to complete xEMU development, funding for xEMU development over the course of Fiscal year 2021 was reduced by 28% due to the reduction in funding for the Lunar Gateway. program, which hosts this job.
These factors wiped out the 12-month calendar reserve for xEMU’s development. NASA now estimates that the first two xEMU suits needed for the Artemis 3 mission will not be completed until November 2024 and, given the time needed for final preparations for the launch, would not be ready for flight until at least April 2025, even if the lunar lander and other elements of the mission are complete. “As of June 2021, NASA had no contingency plan if the suits are not ready,” the report said.
Calendar pressure created by postponing the 2019 moon landing date from 2028 to 2024 may have exacerbated the problems. The report noted that in March, work on a prototype suit was halted due to a component failure. Staff blamed the problem on factors such as schedule pressure as well as poor communications between team members and the rapid growth of the project team.
Despite its problems, work on the xEMU combination is still far ahead of HLS, which creates its own difficulties. The report noted that project officials are concerned that the design assumptions of the landing gear combination project may turn out to be wrong. The suit’s mass budget was reduced last year from 186.6 kilograms to 177.1 kilograms, forcing the project to redesign the elements of the suit to meet this reduced mass.
The OIG report also raised concerns about NASA’s procurement strategy for the new suit. NASA had previously planned a “hybrid contract approach” in which it would have a single prime contractor for the integration of the suit and several contracts for development and sustainment. NASA, however, announced earlier this year that it will follow a commercial services approach for space suits, paying to use suits developed by companies, which will be encouraged but not required to use technologies developed for the xEMU. .
This approach, the report adds, also leaves no indication as to whether the suits will also be designed for use on the International Space Station. The xEMU project planned to make versions of the suit compatible for use on the station, replacing aging suits that have become a safety concern, as well as for activities at the Lunar Gateway.
“However, with the evolving and competing requirements of xEMU’s stakeholder programs and the Agency’s uncertainties about mission priorities, NASA risks awarding a contract without clearly defining key technical requirements,” the report concludes. .
The report made four recommendations to NASA, ranging from extending the suit development schedule and ensuring that xEMU suits can also be used on the ISS to finalizing an acquisition strategy for the suits. . NASA, in a response included in the report, said it accepts the recommendations, although implementation will not be completed in some cases until next June.
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