Volume 8, Number 6     November/December 2000

Spacesuit Technology May Aid Firefighters

Technology used to protect space-walking astronauts may soon be available to firefighters through the development of an advanced suit offering better protection, endurance, mobility and communications.

NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC), working with the Houston Fire Department, the Department of Defense and Lockheed Martin, is developing the prototype suit that could double the time a firefighter can battle a blaze before having to rest and cool off.

Annually in the United States, approximately 100 firefighters are killed and 100,000 are injured fighting fires that kill more than 5,000 people each year and injure almost 30,000 others. Fires in the United States also cause more than $130 billion in economic losses. Greater firefighting efficiencies could reduce those losses.

The advanced firefighter's suit will use a number of state-of-the-art NASA technologies. Among them is active cooling, protecting the firefighter from metabolic heat trapped in the suit. Combined with new fabrics on the outer garment, the liquid cooling inner garment can allow more lengthy exposure to temperatures of up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to a maximum of 300 degrees for current suits. It will be double sealed, exposing no skin areas and providing protection against hazardous materials. The suit also will offer greater impact protection.

The design is still evolving. The suit ultimately could have an integrated modern helmet with duplex radio, biodata and temperature sensors, infrared imaging to search for fire victims and readouts on the status of its life support system. Infrared imaging work at JSC is coupled with an effort to provide infrared victim-search capability for the International Space Station.

The next-generation suit is modular. Its ergonomic design allows more freedom of movement than present suits and it is light in weight.

Kumar Krishen of JSC's Technology Transfer and Commercialization Office; Tico Foley, an aerospace engineer in the Crew Station Branch of JSC's Space and Life Sciences Directorate; along with firefighters have identified about 40 potential areas for high-tech improvements. One is the cooling capability. "With protection from both internal and external heat sources, the firefighter will be able to extend the time available to perform the tasks of saving lives and property," Foley said.

The Houston Fire Department set goals and requirements for the suit. JSC's Technology Transfer and Commercialization Office is responsible for coordinating the project and developing approaches for the design, integration and testing of the suit and its components. The Defense Department developed heat stress models and developed, tested and evaluated materials.

Such suits could be produced in large numbers for perhaps twice the cost of current suits. But predicted reduction in firefighter deaths and injuries, greater efficiencies in rescuing victims and allowing firefighters more time and greater efficiencies in fighting fires could more than make up for the higher cost.

The project to develop the advanced suit began in 1997 when two Houston firefighters brought a badly damaged helmet to the Technology Transfer and Commercialization Office. They asked if NASA technology could offer something better and lighter than the leather design, which dates back to the 1800s. The project expanded to look at overall protection for firefighters and to development of the advanced suit.

For more information, contact Kumar Krishen at NASA Johnson Space Center. Call: 281/483-0695, E-mail: kumar.krishen1@jsc.nasa.gov Please mention you read about it in Innovation.

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