Final Frontier Design
American Aerospace Design Company From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Final Frontier Design is a seed-stage startup company that builds and tests spacesuits.[1] The company's products both enable, and are enabled by, the more recent lower-cost access to space epitomized by NewSpace launch companies such as SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace.[2] FFD was awarded a Phase I SBIR in 2011 and developed pressure garment glove technology under this contract.
| |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Founded | 2010 |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Key people | Ted Southern (President) Nik Moiseev (Lead Designer) |
| Services | space suit design, space suit gloves |
| Website | Final Frontier Design |
In July 2011, Final Frontier Design won third place in the 2011 NewSpace Business Plan Competition in Silicon Valley, sponsored by the Space Frontier Foundation.[1]
In December 2014, Final Frontier Design obtained an official Space Act Agreement with NASA.[3]
Company
Final Frontier Design was founded in 2010 [4] by "artist and designer" Ted Southern, a former Eyebeam resident,[5] and his partner Nikolay Moiseev, "a Russian mechanical engineer," with the intent to "craft affordable yet highly capable spacesuits for a burgeoning commercial spaceflight industry."[6]
Intra-vehicular activity suit
Final Frontier is developing a low-cost commercial inside-the-spacecraft spacesuit called an Intra-Vehicular Activity suit (IVA) which can be pressurized in the event of an emergency, and is projecting to sell the suit at a price of about a fifth of the NASA cost for its existing line of IVA suits that cost around $250,000 each.[7] With the suit weighing a bit under 15 pounds (6.8 kg)—versus 30 pounds with the NASA suit—could result in economically significant reduction in fuel costs for a flight with a number of astronauts.[8] Final Frontier Design is building its third-generation spacesuit, according to the NASA flight certification standards. Its improvements over the second-generation spacesuit include the ability to withstand greater operating pressure, a carbon fiber waist ring, a retractable helmet, and improved gloves and glove disconnects.[9] The pair took to Kickstarter in June 2012 to raise money for the design and construction of a prototype commercial space suit for intra-vehicular travel — meaning activities that take place inside a spacecraft. Final Frontier had raked in more than $27,000 in July 2012 from 386 backers, exceeding their $20,000 fundraising goal. The goal of the Kickstarter project is to prep a third-generation suit to present to NASA for flight certification by 2013.[10]
References
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.