Solution to NASA's Glove Problem

By Nancy Atkinson - May 9, 2008 at 11:29 AM UTC | Space Exploration
damaged-glove.jpg

Damage is occurring to NASA's spacesuit gloves during spacewalks at the International Space Station. In fact, in August of 2007, astronaut Rick Mastracchio was ordered back into the the space station's airlock when he noticed a hole in his spacesuit glove. Damage had also been found on previous EVAs, prompting NASA to call for routine glove checks during spacewalks, which led Mastracchio to find the damage on his left thumb. Holes and extreme wear is occurring to the outer portion of the palm side of the glove. The folks at NASA's Johnson Space Center have been working on the problem, and a newly re-designed glove will be tested during the upcoming STS-124 mission, scheduled to launch May 31. Their solution?

Super-duper patches. Two pairs of gloves will be tested during upcoming spacewalks with these patches on the index finger and thumb (the grey stripe on the finger and thumb.) Those tend to be the high-wear areas, said Brandi Dean at NASA's Public Affairs Office at Johnson Space Center. The patches are made of the same protective material already used in the glove, Vectran, but the weave of the material is tighter in the patches, which improves its resistance to damage. There's also an extra strip of the rubbery material used on the palm of the glove to improve grip.

The gloves have several layers. The layer that's been damaged is just the top, protective layer. The bladder layer that actually keeps the suit pressurized hasn't been damaged. "But," said Dean, "we still take damage to that protective layer seriously, because once that layer is damaged, that area of the bladder doesn't have the amount of protection we want to have."

If everything works well during the flight test of these new gloves, the updated gloves will be used on the following space shuttle mission in October that goes to the Hubble Space Telescope.

But if the patches don't work, maybe they can try something like this:

Ironman, Courtesy of Entertainment Weekly.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com