WearSAT: Wearable Situation Aware Terminal

WearSAT stands for Wearable Situation Aware Terminal. This is an ugrade to the existing communications system used for Extra Vehicular Activities (EVA) while performing spacewalks on the International Space Station (ISS). MIT and Boeing have joined together to combine wearable computing technology with manned spaceflight systems to deliver text, graphics, video, and avionics to an astronaut on ISS EVA. Today, spacewalkers have only voice support over radio to help them perform their work on orbit. This project will demonstrate a very practical application of wearable computing in delivering visual information over a wireless network to a low power terminal with a near eye display integrated into the EVA Mobility Unit (EMU), the current U.S. spacesuit.

The goal of the project is to demonstrate a functional system with wireless infrastructure that will lead to the deployment of flight systems over the next 3 years. From technology developed in this project, lessons learned, and user data from experimental use, results from this work can also provide solutions to terrestrial situations.