When future astronauts head to the Moon, they may very well be wearing space suits created, in part, through a collaboration between two University of Delaware academic departments, a new UD alumnae and a company founded by UD alumni.

This interdisciplinary project included Norm Wagner, the Unidel Robert L. Pigford Chair,  Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; Huantian Cao, chair of the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies; Richard Dombrowski, former associate research scientist in UD’s Department of Chemical Engineering and co-founder of STF Technologies, and Michelle Yatvitskiy, who graduated this year with a master’s degree in fashion and apparel studies and a graduate certificate in sustainable apparel business.

The outcome of their collaboration is a new fabric for the outer layer of space suits, called the environmental protection garment (EPG) shell, that will prevent lunar dust particles from penetrating the material.

“Our fashion apparel studies program covers everything related to clothing, and space suits are a form of clothing,” said Cao. “Quite a few of our alumni work with ILC Dover, a major space suit manufacturer.”

One may not immediately think of outer layers of clothing as having the potential to create a collaboration between chemical engineers and fashion designers, however, “clothing provides the ultimate level of protection, and that requires science and engineering too,” he said.

For lunar astronauts, the critical problem lies with the dust and soil on the moon’s surface called regolith. The regolith particles are fine and very sharp, like volcanic rocks and dust here on Earth. As the current EPG material is woven, the particles infiltrate the fabric through the tiny holes in the weave, damaging it.

“The Apollo astronauts spent only a few hours on the surface and their suits were basically destroyed,” Wagner said.  

On top of that, regolith dust is dangerous to inhale, and Martian regolith contains toxic perchlorates.

“It's not just an annoyance, it’s not just a problem from the dust getting into everything and destroying stuff. It's also potentially emitting gasses, so we really have to keep it off the suits. The fabric has to reject the particles,” Wagner said.