Technical Paper
Development of an Automated Checkout, Service, and Maintenance System for a Space Station EVAS
1988-07-01
881065
Performing checkout, servicing, and maintenance of an Extravehicular Activity System (EVAS) on board the Space Station presents several unique challenges. This paper reviews the progress that has been made in the initial effort to define, design, and develop a system that will perform this function. The need for rapid “turnaround” of the EVA capability has not been a significant requirement for the Shuttle program where EVA is only an occasional occurrence (two missions per year). Because of this in frequency and because reservicing is performed on the ground rather than on orbit, the current expenditure of approximately 3,000 manhours to process each Shuttle Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) is acceptable. However, current estimates on the EVA frequency required to support Space Station operations is projected at twice weekly.