›From PPE to Spacesuit 4: Assistive Clothing and Human Emotions

#4 Clothing as Life Support – soft robotics

Date: Friday 13th November 2020 at 13:00 GMT

Panellists: 

• Astronaut Nicole Stott, NASA Astronaut Veteran, Founder of Space Art Foundation, Artist, Senior Technical Advisor to ILC Dover Inc
• Daniel J Klopp, ILC Dover Inc, NASA’s spacesuit (xEMU) maker
• Amalina Bakri, Imperial College London, PhD Clinical Research Fellow 

Key Topics: Soft robotics, biometrics, life support 

Garments have allowed us to operate in climates and environments that our bodies are not made for – the extreme cold and hot cycles in spacewalks and in hospitals with infectious diseases. A spacesuit is a life support system. For most terrestrial applications, life support systems are used by patients who are too ill to able to sustain life on their own. In space, life support systems are used by the super fit – astronauts. In light of this, we would like to bring the following questions into our discussion: Could we design better life support systems for the sick by learning from the designs we have for the super fit? In return, could the design of peri-operative wearables spark new ideas for the next generation spacesuits as we head for surface missions and commercial crew operations?

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