The suitport concept has been recently implemented as part of the small pressurized lunar rover (Currently the Space Exploration vehicle, or SEV) and the Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle (MMSEV) concept demonstrator vehicle. Suitport replaces or augments the traditional airlock function of a spacecraft by providing a bulkhead opening, capture mechanism, and sealing system to allow ingress and egress of a space suit while the space suit remains outside of the pressurized volume of the spacecraft. This presents significant new opportunities to EVA exploration in both microgravity and surface environments. The suitport concept will enable three main improvements in EVA by providing reductions in: pre-EVA time from hours to less than thirty minutes; airlock consumables; contamination returned to the cabin with the EVA crewmember. Two second generation suitports were designed and tested. The previously reported second generation Marman Clamp suitport and a newer concept, the Pneumatic Flipper Suitport. These second generation suitports demonstrated human donning and doffing of the Z1 spacesuit with an 8.3 psi pressure differential across the spacesuit. Testing was performed using the JSC B32 Chamber B, a human rated vacuum chamber. The test included human rated suitports, the suitport compatible prototype suit, and chamber modifications. This test brought these three elements together in the first ever pressurized donning of a rear entry suit through a suitport. This paper presents the results of the testing, including unexpected difficulties with doffing, and engineering solutions implemented to ease the difficulties. A review of suitport functions, including a discussion of the need to doff a pressurized suit in earth gravity, is included. Recommendations for future design and testing are documented.

The suitport concept has been recently implemented as part of the small pressurized lunar rover (Currently the Space Exploration vehicle, or SEV) and the Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle (MMSEV) concept demonstrator vehicle. Suitport replaces or augments the traditional airlock function of a spacecraft by providing a bulkhead opening, capture mechanism, and sealing system to allow ingress and egress of a spacesuit while the spacesuit remains outside of the pressurized volume of the spacecraft. This presents significant new opportunities to EVA exploration in both microgravity and surface environments. The suitport concept will enable three main improvements in EVA by providing reductions in: pre-EVA time from hours to less than thirty minutes; airlock consumables; contamination returned to the cabin with the EVA crewmember. To date, the first generation suitport has been tested with mockup suits on the rover cabins and pressurized on a bench top engineering unit. The work on the rover cabin has helped define the operational concepts and timelines, and has demonstrated the potential of suitport to save significant amounts of crew time before and after EVAs. The work with the engineering unit has successfully demonstrated the pressurizable seal concept including the ability to seal after the introduction and removal of contamination to the sealing surfaces. Using this experience, a second generation suitport was designed. This second generation suitport has been tested with a spacesuit prototype using the pressure differentials of the spacecraft. This test will be performed using the JSC B32 Chamber B, a human rated vacuum chamber. This test will include human rated suitports, the suitport compatible prototype suit, and chamber modifications. This test will bring these three elements together in the first ever pressurized donning of a rear entry suit through a suitport. This paper presents design of a human rated second generation suitport, modifications to the JSC human rated chamber B to accept a suitport, and a compatible space suit to support pressurized human donning of the pressurized suit through a suitport. Design challenges and solutions and compromises required to develop the system are presented. Initial human testing results are presented.