Space suits

Space is a lethal place for humans. When astronauts go on a spacewalk, they enter an enormous vacuum with no air at all. They must contend with radiation, dust, debris and temperatures that alternate between extremes of minus 157 degrees Celsius in the dark to plus 121 degrees in the sunlight.

Spacesuits are the difference between life and death, providing the correct pressure for the body and supplying water to drink and oxygen to breathe. With up to 16 different layers, it’s no wonder NASA calls spacesuits “a miniature spaceship to protect the human body.”

“You’re essentially creating a bubble that you want to thermally control and make comfortable for the astronaut,” explains John Mouland, Senior Scientist for Trelleborg’s engineered coated fabrics. “The suit has to be pressurized and not blow apart, and it has to be sealable to do that.”

Over several decades, Trelleborg has carved out a small but growing niche in the space segment, supplying a customer making spacesuits for NASA.

Trelleborg’s coated and laminated fabrics provide mounting and integration interfaces, stiffness and shape. The most critical use of Trelleborg’s material is in the air-retaining bladders that are specifically designed to provide flexibility, strength and durability.

“Our customer who makes the spacesuits is a big airship manufacturer and very familiar with Trelleborg from our years of producing materials for the lighter-than-air sector,” Mouland says.

Spacesuits today are very different from when Trelleborg first supplied materials for them. While the suits were once quite stiff and tough to maneuver, the soft goods inside the suits today optimize the fit for improved comfort and mobility. The gloves are dexterous enough to allow the astronaut to handle tools.

Trelleborg’s facility in Monson, Massachusetts, in the US, is currently producing its second iteration of the air-holding barrier in the spacesuit to develop a stronger tear-resistant base cloth. The focus is on abrasion resistance and a mechanical slip so that the material does not have a sticky, tacky surface area on the polyurethane.

“The customer is looking to achieve ease of manufacture and cleanliness, and one of the things about polyurethane is that it’s a tough and tenacious polymer. Its capabilities come from chemistry, not from additives,” Mouland explains. “You can weld it thermally or with radiofrequency. As it ages, it retains its protective properties for a long time.”

The spacesuit producer comes to Trelleborg with its “recipe” of ingredients based on specifications it received from NASA, although Trelleborg has some flexibility in using our expertise when applying them.

“They might come to us with the substrate and the chemical compound they want to use, and we can go back and say that a different solution might be better for the application. They’re open to change, unless it means having to requalify the material,” says Sarah McGuire, Senior Business Development Manager–Aerospace.

Trelleborg also supplies materials directly to NASA for making SCAPE suits, the protective gear worn by the ground technicians who fuel and prepare the spacecraft for launch, as well as defuel post re-entry. This further underlines the strong presence of the company in the space sector.

Although order volumes are relatively low, space is a prestigious segment, and Trelleborg materials have been present in spacesuits used in key NASA missions in recent years.

“We’re proud to be involved in outer space exploration,” says Kevin Maine, Commercial Director–Aerospace and North America Rubber. “It is fun to see our materials making a difference in such critical applications.”

The market is also growing as privately owned space companies enter the field.

“There will definitely be more opportunities for us,” says Maine. “Not only spacesuits. We also supply materials for pack bags (pictured left) – vented airbag technology that protects landing of payloads of 20 tons or more, including capsules returning astronauts to Earth.”

Trelleborg is a trusted partner, with longstanding customer relationships and the ability to customize materials to meet specific requirements. “We have rapid-prototyping centers and a large breadth of processing capability and polymer expertise, which enables us to provide solutions for demanding requirements,” says Maine.

“Space will be a growing market for us,” he says. “In five years, it could look quite different to how it does today.”