Non-profit research and education organisation Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere (PoSSUM) has completed the first round of Extravehicular Activity (EVA) spacesuit testing.

A team of 16 citizen-scientists completed a series of gravity-offset tests for its EVA spacesuit prototype at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) headquarters near Montreal, Quebec.

Developed by Final Frontier Design of Brooklyn, the EVA suit was tested in lunar and zero-G conditions using a Kansas State University-developed two-axis gravity-offset system.

The testing focused on walking and assessing PoSSUM developed tools such as a hammer, shovel, soil sampler and a rock hardness tester.

The evaluations also covered the use of control units for remote drone and a 3D lidar imager.

During the EVA space testing, participants were equipped with CSA’s biomonitoring ‘smart garment’ to check heart rate, breathing rate, and blood oxygen saturation.

PoSSUM executive director Dr Jason Reimuller said: “The diverse PoSSUM team tested a Russian-heritage suit working under a Nasa Space Act Agreement at the Canadian Space Agency with contributions from Kansas State and test teams originating from nations around the world.”

The citizen-scientists were selected from more than 40 countries and trained by PoSSUM. This team developed lunar geological and remote medical tools.

Final Frontier Design president Ted Southern said: “Final Frontier Design is proud to complete our first round of high-fidelity EVA spacesuit testing.

“It was a privilege and honour to work with Project PoSSUM at the Canadian Space Agency, and thrilling to see the successful use of our EVA system in multiple relevant environments.”