Claas Olthoff

Verified

Claas verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

Learn more

Verified

Claas verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

Learn more

• Dr.-Ing.
• Professor (Full) at University of Stuttgart

Future human space exploration missions are planned to take humans into permanently shaded regions (PSRs) at the lunar south pole. These areas are among the coldest places in the Solar System and represent a novel operational environment for spacesuits. In addition to this technical challenge, there is scientific interest in volatiles that are cold...

This paper documents the continued development and further validation of a spacesuit simulation system called the Virtual Spacesuit (V-SUIT). V-SUIT is a MATLAB ® application that combines models of a spacesuit pressure garment, portable life support system and a comprehensive human model, with a dynamic thermal simulation of the environment on an...

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is currently developing the next generation of spacesuits for use in future exploration missions. This effort, referred to as the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU), has been underway since 2015 with the goal of demonstrating the new technologies during a mission to the Internati...

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is currently developing the next generation of spacesuits for use in future exploration missions. This effort, referred to as the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU), has been underway since 2015 with the goal of demonstrating the new technologies during a mission to the Internati...

The life support system simulation tool Virtual Habitat (V-HAB) has been under development at the Technical University of Munich since 2006. The MATLAB®-based code dynamically simulates life support systems and their subsystems, as well as their interactions with a modeled crew metabolism. This paper presents the structure and capabilities of V-HAB...

Human spaceflight is an expensive endeavor. Every kilogram that needs to be transported to low Earth orbit or beyond costs tens of thousands of dollars, with the cost increasing exponentially the farther humanity extends its reach into the solar system and beyond. It is therefore prudent, if not necessary, to consider the use of resources that are...

In order to ensure astronaut safety during extravehicular activities (EVA) on planetary surfaces, the operational paradigm is to limit the distance crew members would have to walk back to a safe haven in case of a hardware failure. For the Apollo missions, this distance was calculated prior to the mission based on the average consumption of oxygen,...

This paper presents results from the validation of a spacesuit simulation system called V-SUIT, which has been under development at the Technical University of Munich since 2012. V-SUIT combines models of spacesuit pressure garments, portable life support systems (PLSS) and a comprehensive human model, with a dynamic model of the thermal environmen...

The Virtual Habitat project (V-HAB) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) aims to develop a dynamic simulation environment for life support systems (LSS). Within V-HAB a dynamic human model interacts with the LSS by relevant metabolic inputs and outputs based on internal, environmental and operational factors. The human model is separated int...

The Space Evaporator Absorber Radiator (SEAR) developed by Creare LLC, UTC Aerospace Systems and NASA is a novel technology for thermal control of spacesuits. It greatly reduces the amount of water lost through evaporative cooling by absorbing it into a lithium chloride bed. This process generates heat that needs to be radiated away from the spaces...

Two dynamic simulation tools have been developed at the Technical University of Munich in the past years: The Thermal Moon Simulator (TherMoS) and the dynamic portable life support system (PLSS) simulation Virtual Space Suit (V-SUIT). Development of TherMoS and V SUIT started in 2009 and 2011, respectively. Both tools are MATLAB®-based and spin-off...

The Advanced Closed Loop System (ACLS) is currently under development by Airbus Defense and Space and is slated for launch to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017. The addition of new hardware into an already complex system such as the ISS life support system (LSS) always poses operational risks. It is therefore important to understand the...

The Virtual Habitat project (V-HAB) at the Technische Universität München (TUM) aims to develop a dynamic simulation environment for life support systems (LSS). The modular structure of the tool allows the combination of different LSS technologies and components. The environmentally sensitive dynamic model of the human physiology provides the relev...

This paper presents the on-orbit results and the lessons learned from First-MOVE (Munich Orbital Verification Experiment), the first CubeSat mission of the Institute of Astronautics (LRT) at the Technische Universität München (TUM). The development of the satellite started as a student project in 2006. First-MOVE was launched on November 21st 2013....

In this paper we present the Virtual Habitat (V-HAB) model, which simulates on a system level the dynamics of entire mission scenarios for any given life support system (LSS) including a dynamic representation of the crew. We first present the V-HAB architecture. Thereafter we validate in selected case studies the V-HAB submodules. Finally, we demo...

This paper investigates the utilization of deployable and expandable structures for communication purposes and solar power generation on CubeSats. We present the design and on-orbit results of the flight-proven solar-panel release mechanism of the first satellite of Technische Universität München First-MOVE, as well as the preliminary design of a s...

As part of the Rodent Habitat project being planned to enable physiological research onboard the ISS, live rodents (mice and rats) shall be transported in the sealed pressurized environment of commercial cargo resupply carriers such as SpaceX’s Dragon or Orbital’s Cygnus. The previously flown Animal Enclosure Module (AEM) has been upgraded by NASA...

MOVE II is a 2U CubeSat currently under development at Technische Universität München (TUM). The main objective of the MOVE II mission is to measure the flux of magnetically trapped antiprotons with kinetic energies below 80 MeV inside the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). Several theoretical models have been published in the last 20 years describing t...

The dynamic life support system (LSS) simulation software Virtual Habitat (V-HAB) has been under development at the Technische Universität München since 2006. V-HAB allows the dynamic simulation of habitat life support systems and their interaction with a human model, as well the environment of the habitat. By correlation with operational life supp...

On October 22nd 2008, the VERTICAL (VERification and Test of the Initiation of CubeSats After Launch) experiment was flown on the REXUS 4 sounding rocket mission at Esrange in Kiruna, Sweden. The experiment’s objective was to verify critical hardware to be used on the MOVE CubeSat in a space environment. The items to be verified were multiple micro...

This paper presents an update on the Earth-based hopper prototype for autonomous planetary exploration that MIT and Draper Laboratory are developing as part of the Next Giant Leap team's efforts in the Google Lunar X-Prize. New developments and upgrades, culminating in the second-generation vehicle, are described in this paper, as well as the ongoi...