Barber-Nichols Awarded NASA Contract

Barber-Nichols is honored to be awarded a contract by NASA Johnson Space Center for the design, manufacture, and test of Ventilation Loop Fans for the Exploration Portable Life Support System (xPLSS) in support of NASA’s next-generation space suit, the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU).

The xPLSS being developed for the xEMU will offer many significant advantages over the current EMU PLSS, such as additional safety features, improvements in performance, and two fans that circulate 100% oxygen throughout the ventilation loop of the xPLSS. The Ventilation Loop Fans are used to circulate oxygen in the space suit through CO2 and water vapor removal systems, supplying fresh oxygen to the astronaut.

See Anne McClain’s spacewalk on Twitter.