Suitport

A suitport or suitlock is an alternative technology to an airlock, designed for use in hazardous environments including in human spaceflight, especially planetary surface exploration.

Suitports present advantages over traditional airlocks in terms of mass, volume, and ability to mitigate contamination by—and of—the local environment.

During the Apollo program, it was discovered that the lunar soil is electrically charged, and adheres readily to any surface with which it comes into contact, a problem magnified by the sharp, barb-like shapes of the dust particles.

[1][3] Disadvantages of suitports include the additional mass of the interface on the rear of the space suit which may be more than 4.5 kilograms (9.9 lb), and increased mechanical complexity, potentially reducing the overall reliability of the EVA system.

[9] According to NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, disadvantages of suitports also include: The first EVA rear entry space suit was developed at NPP Zvezda in 1962.

[13] A suitport prototype built by Brand Griffin has been used in a simulated lunar gravity test on board NASA Johnson's C-135 aircraft.

Testing has been taking place in combination with the Z-1 prototype spacesuit inside NASA's human-rated thermal vacuum chamber B at the Johnson Space Center.