Status: tested 1964. Gross mass: 23 kg (50 lb).
The AX-3 was an 0.5 bar suit, 23 kg, 0.5 to 0.7 bar operational pressure, with improved mobility and was completed in 1977. The program culminated in the development of the prototype AX-5, an all hard suit for high pressure application and zero prebreathe in the 1980's. The AX-5 shared common design goals with the ILC Mark III. For example, they had to be easy to get into and out of, be comfortable to wear, and allow adequate mobility and range of motion for the jobs to be performed. Both were designed to be altered to fit different size astronauts
AX-5 American space suit, tested 1985. The AX-5 high pressure, zero prebreathe hard suit was developed at NASA Ames Research Center in the 1980s. It achieved mobility through a constant volume, using a hard metal/composite rigid exoskeleton design. |