Search Results

Patent-pending Metabolic heat regenerated Temperature Swing Adsorption (MTSA) technology is currently being investigated for removal and rejection of carbon dioxide (CO2) and heat from a Portable Life Support System (PLSS) to a Martian environment. The metabolically-produced CO2 present in the ventilation loop gas is collected using a CO2 selective adsorbent that has been cooled via a heat exchanger to near CO2 sublimation temperatures (∼195 K) with liquid CO2 (LCO2) obtained from Martian resources. Once the adsorbent is fully loaded, used, warm (∼300 K), moist ventilation loop gas is used to heat the adsorbent via another heat exchanger to reject the collected CO2 to the Martian ambient. Two beds are used to achieve continuous CO2 removal by cycling between the cold and warm conditions for adsorbent loading and regeneration, respectively.

Metabolic heat regenerated Temperature Swing Adsorption (MTSA) technology is being developed to address carbon dioxide (CO2) and heat removal/rejection in a Mars Portable Life Support System (PLSS). The technology utilizes an adsorbent that when cooled with liquid CO2 to near sublimation temperatures (∼195 K) removes metabolically-produced CO2 in the ventilation loop. Once fully loaded, the adsorbent is then warmed (∼300 K) externally by the ventilation loop, rejecting the captured CO2 to Mars ambient. Two beds are used to provide a continuous cycle of CO2 removal/rejection as well as facilitate heat exchange out of the ventilation loop. To investigate the feasibility of the technology, a series of model calibration experiments were conducted which lead to the selection and partial characterization of an appropriate adsorbent.

Solid Oxide Electrolysis (SOE) with an embedded Sabatier reactor is an innovative and efficient concept for regenerative air revitalization. The concept safely eliminates handling of hydrogen, and works regardless of gravity and pressure environments with no moving parts and no multi-phase flows. It also is efficient because it requires no expendables from Earth while being compact with minimal impact on mass. The consequence is significant because SOE is an inherently suitable technology (and possibly the only technology) for enabling 100% oxygen regeneration from carbon dioxide and water vapor, two byproducts of crew activity that must be managed. To investigate the feasibility of this concept, a Sabatier reactor was successfully embedded into a single SOE cell.

Paragon Space Development Corporation has created the only privately developed and owned Environmental Control and Life Support Systems Human-rating Facility (EHF) for spacecraft ECLSS system testing in a dynamic flight environment. The facility allows for simulating the very stressing dynamic changes in pressure, altitude and operating conditions for human spaceflight, including suborbital and orbital flight profiles as well as Mars and lunar environments. Testing of space suits, pressure suits and ECLS systems can be performed for failure scenarios not able to be duplicated during flight testing. The facility allows for testing of ECLSS hardware before integration with the spacecraft, lowering ECLSS development cost and time, thereby reducing program risk. This paper describes the detailed design and setup of the EHF as well as the various capabilities.

Suborbital flight provides unique design considerations for Environmental Systems. The comparison of an aircraft like flow through system and a spacecraft like closed environmental system is presented. Considerations for safety aspects associated with pressure control and redundancy are also addressed.

President Bush’s recent announcement of the Exploration Initiative dictates manned bases on the Moon and eventually Mars. A ground swell of credible privately funded space projects is also reaffirming the notion that was for a time taken for granted but in recent years has seemed further and further from being realized – that humans will live permanently in space. A human mission to Mars, or a base on the Moon or Mars is a lengthier more complex mission than any space endeavor undertaken to date. Simulation Based Acquisition is a fundamental part of preparing for such a mission. Ground simulations provide a relevant, analogous environment for testing technologies and learning how to manage complex, long duration missions, while addressing inherent mission risks.

This paper describes the development and ground-test results of three passively controlled life support systems for experiments currently onboard ISS, and scheduled for flight on STS-107 as part of the Space Media Inc. (SMI) Science and Technology Research Student (STARS®) global education program. Two experiments use the Autonomous Biological System (ABS) technology, which has been tested during two 4-month Mir experiments. One ABS will house embryos and fry of the Japanese Medaka Fish, Oryzias latipes, A second ABS contains a complex ecosystem experiment. The third system uses a passive life support system based on agar gel for the harvester ant Pogonomyrmex occidentalis. Thermal control, lighting and still and streaming digital imaging during the experiments are provided by the Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus - Isothermal Containment Module (GBA-ICM).

Materially-closed aquatic life support systems containing vascular plants, invertebrate animals, algae and microbes were tested in three space flight experiments with ground controls. Termed Autonomous Biological Systems (ABS), the 0.9 liter systems were completely isolated from spacecraft life support systems and cabin atmosphere contaminants, and needed minimal intervention from astronauts. The first experiment, aboard the Space Shuttle in 1996 for 10 days, was the first time that aquatic angiosperms were successfully grown in space. The second and third experiments aboard the Mir space station had 4-month durations, in 1996-97 and 1997-98, and were the first time that higher organisms (aquatic invertebrate animals) completed their life cycles in space. Compared to the ground control ABS, the flight units showed clearer water and slightly higher total organic carbon and soluble free amino acids. ABS units from all 3 flights returned as diverse and complex ecosystems.