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"Take Me Home" Button Developed for Astronaut Spacewalks

posted by martyb on Friday December 08 2017, @12:19AM   
from the mounted-adjacent-to-the-"Easy"-button dept.

takyon writes:

An engineering company is developing an automated system to help get spacewalking astronauts to safety. Spacewalking astronauts at the International Space Station currently wear a Simplified Aid For EVA Rescue (SAFER) jet backpack that must be manually controlled:

Getting stranded during a spacewalk is a terrifying scenario for any astronaut to imagine — but what if space station crew members could simply press a button during such an event and be immediately transported back to safety?

That's the idea behind new technology in development dubbed the "Take Me Home" button. It's a complex system of hardware and software that could be incorporated into a space suit and can automatically guide an astronaut home during an emergency in space. The concept is currently being developed with partial NASA funding at Draper, an engineering company with a long history of creating technologies for crewed spaceflight.

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Original Submission

• Re:Could be a fun development project but ... (Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday December 08 2017, @12:44AM

  by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Friday December 08 2017, @12:44AM (#607058) Journal

  SAFER is designed to be used as a self-rescue device if in spite of precautions such as tethers, safety grips, and the robot arm an EVA crewmember gets separated and no vehicles can provide rescue capability. SAFER is worn by every ISS crewmember using an Extravehicular Mobility Unit.

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