1. Scope

Keywords

Rationale

Space suits used in conducting extravehicular actives need to be engineered to allow mission success and provide protection to the wearer from extreme thermal environments. The boot assemblies used as part of the space suit need special consideration as they commonly contact thermal conditioned spacecraft and planetary materials that provide a direct path of heat gain or loss to the foot. The thermal protection provided by a boot assembly is dependent upon the designs and materials used within the boot, the distribution and layers over the foot, the looseness or tightness of fit, heating or cooling mechanisms and the increased surface area for heat loss. Thermal property measurements made on fabrics alone do not take these factors into account. Conductance measurements of the boot assemblies can be used to compare different assemblies that could be used in extravehicular activities. Conductance values can also be used within models to predict how the human foot may perform in extreme thermal environments.