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Space is dangerous. Crew members on board the ISS, or any future spacecraft, will be at risk from atmosphere control malfunctions, chemical leaks, and even breaches due to impacting space debris impacts. A hole in the hull just 5cm2 in area would cause depressurization to dangerous levels within 37 minutes, but it takes 40 minutes to put on a full space suit!

To plug this gap, we have designed an emergency helmet which is cheap to manufacture, easy to put on, and provides a few minutes of pressure and oxygen which allows the astronaut to deal with the emergency, get to safety, or put on a full suit.

The safety technology needed to achieve this are almost all pre-existing - obviously the ISS is well equipped with emergency measures for various eventualities, and a range of products is available for more terrestrial activities like scuba diving and underground mining.

We have integrated many of the existing ideas, and added an embedded sensor platform to provide real-time information on the external atmosphere, the wearer's location, and the status of the helmet itself.

Sensors can include: - Pressure and temperature sensors, both internal and external - External atmosphere monitoring with compact infrared spectroscopy - Navigation assistance with a camera and infrared beacons

This data can shared with other nearby active masks via a mesh network over the communications radio - this means every mask has access to all the data from every mask, so that it can all be transferred if one unit establishes contact with a control centre.

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