FlexCraft is a proposed support craft for the NASA Deep Space Habitat (DSH). FlexCraft would be used by an individual astronaut for EVA or tele-operated activities. The hardware would connect directly to the DSH airlock and would share a common atmosphere as the parent ship to provide immediate access to space without pre-breathing by DSH crew.
With a pressurized volume of 0.62 m3, the FlexCraft is meant for only one person with an “excursion time” of less than 8 hours. Its propellant would be gaseous nitrogen, and it would have a Delta-V of 21 m/s with a total gross mass projected at 452 kg.
An already-identified limitation is that it cannot be used during solar particle events.
The FlexCraft concept was first presented in a 2012 conference paper by Brand N. Griffin.