Since 1992 studies were conducted to define a common European/Russian Space Suit to replace the Russian space suit Orlan-DMA and the former planned European Hermes EVA space suit. This EVA Suit 2000 is a joint development initiated by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Space Agency (RKA).
The utilisation scenario foresees space based missions where the suits are permanently stationed on-board a space station: Throughout this mission duration, reliability and availability of the space suits have to be maintained. A concept for preventive and corrective maintenance was developed which is closely linked to the EVA Suit 2000 technical baseline and applied technologies. Russian experience gained with the present Extravehicular Activity (EVA) suit on the Mir space station and extensive application of European technologies shall be applied to achieve these ambitious mission requirement.
This paper presents the systems technical configuration, the current status of this maintenance concept and the relevant technical development results. Maintenance implications from the technical baseline are discussed using typical examples of EVA Suit 2000 assemblies and components.
