NASA’s Amy Ross brings wonder to the 2019 CanUX lineup

This year, Amy will tackle the subject of UX for space suits.

 Space Suit User Experience
} Nov 2, 2019   2:55PM / 35 MINUTES

 Speaker Bio: Amy Ross

Amy Ross leads the advanced space suit pressure garment development team at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Every day is an adventure as technologies and concepts for space suits to take humans beyond Earth are realized.

The scope of the work ranges from understanding human physiology to awareness of geologic exploration activities on planetary surfaces to knowledge of the fabrics that can keep humans safe and help them to be productive in hazardous environments. Currently her team is designing a suit of the future for demonstration on the International Space Station.

In her own words, designing spacesuits is a challenge. “You’re always widening your path toward the ideal. Ideally you’d build a spacesuit that weighs almost nothing, is very comfortable, allows you to move as if you don’t have a spacesuit on. There is probably an unattainable ideal out there, but you’re always working toward that.”

Amy is the third ever speaker from NASA to grace the CanUX stage, following appearances by AMES Research Center UX Manager Steve Hillenius in 2015, and fellow Johnson Space Center spacesuit designer Lindsay Aitchison in 2017.

*Image credit: Purdue University & Elida Arrizza