Technology Transfer

Spacesuit Offers a Walk in the Sun

MODIFIED NASA SPACESUIT TECHNOLOGY has opened doors to a whole new world for a six-year-old Virginia boy with a genetic disorder that causes extreme and potentially dangerous sunlight sensitivity.

Mikie Walker became the first American child to receive a pint-sized "spacesuit" that protects him from the Sun's ultraviolet rays and other light sources. The suit was modified with more durability at less cost, after NASA received feedback from two brothers in England who were given a protective prototype suit last September to help them with a serious light allergy that only allowed them to venture out at night.

The suit blocks nearly all of the Sun's ultraviolet rays. These rays can result in chronic skin inflammation, blistering, inflammation of nerves, abdominal pain and other disturbances if a body affected by the genetic disorder porphryia is exposed to direct sunlight.

Mikie received the improved version in April. "His new favorite outdoor activities include playing in dirt and rolling on the lawn," Mikie's mother, Angela Walker, said. "He enjoys this so much that, at the end of the day, he resembles a soil-encrusted Apollo moonwalker."

The Office of Technology Transfer and Commercialization at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, offered the suit to Mikie through an agreement with the not-for-profit HED and Related Disorders Foundation in Hampton, Virginia.

The suit's headpiece was redesigned totally to enhance ventilation and reduce overheating in the head area. The body cooling system was changed from a battery-powered liquid pump unit to a passive phase change vest, made of material similar to the refrigerator cold packs used for sports injuries. The phase change vest is simple, easier to use, more durable than the original battery pump and less expensive, making it more affordable for families, according to Robert Dotts, Assistant Director of Technology Transfer and Commercialization at Johnson.

"A child now can play in the sunlight because NASA astronauts have walked on the Moon," said Sarah Moody, founder and president of the HED Foundation, which donates cooling gear and other garments to children with hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (HED), multiple sclerosis, spina bifida, cerebral palsy and other genetic disorders. HED is a medical disorder characterized by a lack of sweat glands, which can lead to heat exhaustion, heatstroke and even death. Thirty children are on the foundation's waiting list for a suit like Mikie's.

MicroClimate Systems, Inc., of Sanford, Michigan, supplied the phase change vest, and the Solar Protective Factory of Carmichael, California, provided the ultraviolet protective outer garments. The DRLI Company, St. Charles, Missouri, which supplies protective coatings for astronauts' spacesuit helmets, supplied the clear ultraviolet-blocking coating for Mikie's ski-goggle-like face visor.

For more information, contact John Ira Petty at Johnson Space Center.
Call: 281/483-5111, E-mail: john.i.petty@jsc.nasa.gov Please mention you read
about it in Innovation.

In September 1997, two boys in England with a serious light allergy were given a protective suit prototype that has since been modified for others with light-sensitivity disorders.