Single-person spacecraft

Capsule-suits

The idea of a capsule-suit is that of a man-sized capsule, something beyond form-fitting space suits and rigid suits similar to EVA.

Wernher von Braun, known for the moonshot project, proposed a conical bottle suit in the 1950s. In 1965, the Grumman moon suit had a hard bottle enclosure allowing the user's arms to fully retract into the suit.

In the 1970s, NASA worked on the AX-3 Hardsuit. In the 1980s, NASA Ames center developed the AX-5 hard suit to avoid having to pre-breathe for lower-pressure suits than the host spacecraft. A NASA space suit with some hard elements (named the I-Suit), was developed later.

The Manned Maneuvering Unit is noted in regard to the single-person spacecraft, and it was tested in space in 1984 during a Space Shuttle flight. Highly compact single-person spacecraft have been considered by ISS for EVA work, to avoid having to go through the decompression needed to use the lower-pressure space suits. NASA developed a body-shaped single person spacecraft called FlexCraft, with the idea of allowing more and shorter EVA. The spacecraft would be at the same atmospheric pressure as the ISS, thus removing the medical stress and time needed to decompress and compress, and the danger of the bends. A single-person spacecraft could also enhance protection against micrometeoroid impacts and radiation from cosmic rays.

The Personal Rescue Enclosure was developed for the Space Shuttle. On the ISS the combination of a Space Suit, the Simplified Aid For EVA Rescue (SAFER) and Extravehicular Mobility Unit are used, combined to form a soft-suit spacecraft for emergencies.

A demonstration of single-person spacecraft for ISS, called the FlexCraft, was proposed in the 2010s. In 2018 a single person spacecraft capsule tested in a water pool by NASA. This design has a hatch at the bottom that an astronaut could enter into, but it would be at full pressure thus avoiding the need to purge nitrogen from the body for low-pressure suits. The capsule suit has robotic manipulators, and could be used for some of the tasks currently done in space suits, but the capsule suit would also have enhanced micrometeoroid protection and a higher pressure atmosphere.

List of capsule-suits

• NASA FlexCraft
• Von Braun Bottle Suit
• Bell Labs Remora
• University of Maryland Scout
• Manned Autonomous Workstation (MAWS)
• MAWS 2