Newswise — An enterprising team of North Dakota college students is set to unveil a brand new space suit at a rugged, Mars-like North Dakota Badlands test site this week. The multi-institution group comprises students and their faculty advisors from the University of North Dakota, 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," says Shan de Silva, chair of UND 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 project---but its success unequivocally testifies to the hard work, perseverance, creativity, and ingenuity of North Dakota's young people."
Project manager Pablo de Leon, an Argentine-born aerospace engineer and veteran space suit designer, says the multilayered North Dakota Experimental Planetary Space Suit, or NDEPSS, is entirely and meticulously hand-crafted by students with a variety of skills, including a team at the ND State College of Science that machined to exacting tolerances the rings that join various parts of the suit together. The NDEPSS 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," says de Leon, who coordinated the NASA-funded work of the various student teams that resulted in the product that will be tested in the Badlands. "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 of the composite parts, including the molds for components such as the suit's torso, was 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.
Student "astronauts" this week will don the suit and put it through rigorous paces in the rough Badlands terrain that resembles the rocky surface of Mars, de Leon explains.
"This is really a big team effort and the success is a testament to the talented human capital here in North Dakota," says de Silva. "There really isn't anything that we can't accomplish here when we set our minds to it---and we're really eager and ready to be part of a future national space exploration effort."
The public is invited to view the prototype Mars suit (weather permitting) at 11 a.m., Saturday, May 6, at the test site near Fryburg, N.D. Directions to the test site: From 1-94, take Exit 36 (the Fryburg exit) and turn north; turn left on the frontage road, and follow this road to a y-intersection, and stay left. The test site is on the east side of the road just past a ranching operation. It is 7.5 miles from 1-94 to the test site.
UND Theatre Costume Shop Head's Otherwordly Assignment
A call from the UND Department of Space Studies to Lynn Liepold's sewing shop on South Washington in Grand Forks helped to launch an other-worldly chapter in her 20-plus-year career in fabrics, sewing, and alterations.
"My husband, who is the tech director at the UND Burtness Theater, got a call from (North Dakota Space Grant Consortium program coordinator) Suezette Bieri over at Space Studies," says Liepold, who was appointed in October as the Theater Arts costume shop foreperson. "He called me and told me to call over there right away."
Soon, Liepold, who's been sewing---and playing piano---since she was very young, was chatting with Pablo de Leon, the Argentine-born aerospace engineer and faculty researcher at Space Studies who is managing the North Dakota Experimental Planetary Space Suit project. The suit---including the part that Lynn eventually built---is being field-tested this week at a rugged Badlands site near Dickinson, North Dakota.
During Liepold's first-ever visit to the Space Studies following that call, de Leon explained the space suit project requirements and called upon her wide-ranging knowledge of fabrics, sewing machines and methods, and her technical expertise as a designer.
"I never worked on a space suit before, but Pablo showed me all the stuff they'd been working on and told me I'd be working on one of the outer layers for the space suit," said Liepold, who holds a degree in home economics with an emphasis in textiles and clothing from the University of Minnesota-Mankato. "I measured the suit, just like I did for my own 55-button wedding dress, which I designed and sewed from scratch. The big thing was to build an outer layer with extra space around the joints for flexibility."
The material---a bright blue polyester gabardine---is lined with a prequilted cotton inner layer. "The part I built is a two-layer suit in two pieces, pants and a separate top, all fastened with Velcro so that the person inside can get out quickly."
"It took me about 40 hours---spread out over several weeks---to assemble the garment," says Liepold, who also is an accompanist for one of the Grand Forks children's choirs and a backup organist at United Lutheran. "The biggest challenge I had was getting it to fit, especially since I wouldn't be able to see the suit fully inflated. I had to make allowances for an unknown that I would not even get to see."
She also noted that making an oversize square back (to accommodate extra equipment) together with a round opening for the helmet attachment posed a special challenge, too.
Liepold says her early career experience shaped the skills she needed for the exacting work on a Mars space suit.
"My first job out of college in Mankat was at a dry cleaner doing alterations," she said. "The boss's wife was very particular about how everything looked; if she didn't approve, she'd rip it out at night and we'd have to put it back together in the morning. I learned to do it perfect the first time because putting it together two or three times was no fun."
The outer layer that Liepold sewed was part of a multi-institution group project comprising students and their faculty advisors from the University of North Dakota, the North Dakota State College of Science, Turtle Mountain Community College, North Dakota State University, and Dickinson State University. Shan de Silva, chair of UND 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, agrees it took a lot of talented, dedicated hands such as Liepold's to get this mission accomplished.
Here's a look at the North Dakota Experimental Planetary Space Suit Team:
University of North DakotaAssignment: Suit construction/assembly; composite parts fabrication; helmet integration; project management* Shan de Silva, principal investigator, chair of department of space studies* Pablo de Leon, research advisor, department of space studiesStudents:* Jennie Untener, graduate, space studies* Mark Williamson, graduate, space studies* Fabio Sau, graduate, space studies* Matt Buisker, graduate, space studies
Dickinson State University:Assignment: Test site selection and planning; test development; dust chamber construction* Corinne Krauss, faculty advisor, department of astronomy/physicsStudents:* Rebecca Rodne, undergraduate, biology* Steven Klym, undergraduate, biology* Tom Arnold, undergraduate, biology* Kyle Michels, undergraduate, biology* Brandi Roshau, undergraduate, biology* Megan Wagner, undergraduate, university studies* Derrick Kuntz, undergraduate, biology* Scott Rojic, undergraduate, composite science education* Bret Dockter, undergraduate, political science* Blake Wilson, undergraduate, elementary education* Tracy Greff, undergraduate, biology* Erin Rice, undergraduate, biology* Susan Bobbitt, undergraduate, biology* Jeremy Messer, undergraduate, chemistry* Suzy Reisenauer, undergraduate, undecided* Meghan Rolfsrud, undergraduate, university studies
North Dakota State College of ScienceAssignment: Metal parts machining and fabrication* Steve Johnson, faculty advisor, chair of department of Manufacturing TechnologiesStudents:* Tanner Jacobson, machine tooling/automated manufacturing* Steve Schaefer, machine tooling/automated manufacturing* Kevin Dahme, machine tooling/automated manufacturing* Dana Siemieniewski, machine tooling
North Dakota State UniversityAssignment: Biomedical sensors; wireless technology* Dan Ewert, faculty advisor, chair of department of electrical engineeringStudents:* Mike Zietz, undergraduate, electrical engineering/mathematics* Dan Williams, undergraduate, electrial engineering* Joshua Adamek, undergraduate, electrial engineering* Michael Sorenson, undergraduate, electrial engineering* Jessica Drutowski, undergraduate, electrial engineering* Micah Goldade, undergraduate, electrial engineering* Laura Hagen, undergraduate, electrial engineering* George Auen, undergraduate, electrial engineering* Luke Schafer, undergraduate, electrial engineering
Turtle Mountain Community CollegeAssignment: Voice communications* Prakash Ranganathan, faculty advisor, department of engineeringStudents:* Brady Azure, undergraduate, engineering* Sheldon Martin, undergraduate, engineering* Alex Frederick, undergraduate, engineering
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