Technical Paper
Extravehicular Individual Life Support: A Comparison of American and Russian Systems
1993-07-01
932223
America and Russia have independently implemented designs of individual life support systems to provide extravehicular activity (EVA) capability in support of the Space Shuttle and Orbital Station Mir programs. With the end of the “cold war,” and establishment of new cooperative relationships between America and Russia, joint space ventures are being planned. Mixed American and Russian crews are currently training for upcoming Space Shuttle and Orbital Station Mir missions with a Shuttle-to-Mir rendezvous flight scheduled for 1995. While not currently planned, a joint American and Russian effort to develop and demonstrate Space Shuttle and Mir compatibility to conduct an extravehicular crew rescue from either country's spacecraft would appear to be a desirable future objective.