By Juan Miguel Pedraza

A UND-led team of students unveiled a brand new space suit at a rugged, Mars-like North Dakota Badlands test site this spring.  In addition to UND, the multi-institution group included students and faculty from the North Dakota State College of Science, Turtle Mountain Community College, North Dakota State University, and Dickinson State University.

“Our college students here in North Dakota can do amazing things.  This project showcases this local talent with a cutting-edge, high-tech project,” said Shan de Silva, chair of UND’s Department of Space Studies, director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-North Dakota Space Grant Consortium, and principal investigator on the space suit project.  “A lot of people thought we were crazy to undertake this, but its success unequivocally testifies to the hard work, perseverance, creativity, and ingenuity of North Dakota’s young people.”

One of the top three proposals

Project manager Pablo de Leon, an Argentine-born aerospace engineer and veteran space suit designer, says the multilayered space suit was meticulously hand-crafted by students with a variety of skills.  For example, a team that included students from the State College of Science machined to exacting tolerances the rings that join various parts of the suit.  The project was funded last year by a $100,000 NASA aerospace workforce development grant following a proposal that was identified by NASA officials as one of the top three of the 52 submitted.

“A space suit is essentially a self-contained spacecraft,” observed de Leon, who coordinated the work of the various student teams.  “But it’s not rocket science to build it — what it takes is a lot of very painstaking work.  Really, it’s more of an art than engineering.”

He notes, for example, that all the composite parts, including the molds for components such as the suit’s torso, were fabricated by hand by a team of UND students.  The suit is a prototype for the next generation of planetary suits that NASA will need to realize its vision.  Several patents have already been applied for.

A student “astronaut” donned the suit and put it through rigorous paces in the rough Badlands terrain that resembles the rocky surface of Mars.

“This is really a big team effort, and the success is a testament to the talented human capital here in North Dakota,” said de Silva.  “There really isn’t anything that we can’t accomplish here when we set our minds to it.  We’re really eager and ready to be part of a future national space exploration effort.”