Extra-vehicular Mobility Unit for Astronauts

UPDATE: This project was continued by Todd Sheerin for his Master's Thesis!

This study was investigating the use of control moment gyros in an astronaut jetpack. Currently, SAFER is a small jetpack used during emergencies during Extra-Vehicular Activities (EVAs). SAFER makes use of propulsion for both translation and rotation. In this study, I investigated whether using CMGs for rotation would increase overall efficiency enough to make SAFER an operational system, rather than just an emergency one.

This study made use of the SPHERES test bed.

The housing of one CMG. Four CMGs total in a box-90 configuration were used.

HALO is a research project that will expand the current single expansion port on a SPHERES satellite from 1 to 6 expansion ports. It does this through a connection to VERTIGO, an add-on to SPHERES that adds visual capabilities in addition to computation power.

Scheduling threads for real-time operation.

The CMGs were mounted onto HALO in pairs. The base plate allowed the mounting plates to swivel, allowing for the four CMGs to be in either a box-90 or pyramid configuration.

Simulations explored translation and rotation using jets and CMGs.

Comparison of jet and jet+CMG operations.