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The Augustine advisory committee on the future of the U.S. Space Program has recommended that “Space Station Freedom be revamped to emphasize life sciences and human space operations.” An important component of life sciences research involves the housing, care and maintenance of research specimens. Microbial and odor contamination control measures are necessary to ensure that cross contamination between the crew and specimens is controlled and limited. The bioisolation requirements being applied to life sciences specimen handling facilities are more stringent than those applied in the past. This paper examines the designs and operational features which have been used during previous spaceflight missions to contain and control crew and research specimen wastes.

Previous testing verified that bioisolation between animal specimens and a spacecraft crew can be provided at the level of the individual specimen's living quarters (modular habitat) by the use of microbial air filters. As a follow-on effort, a long term experiment was performed to (1) determine the effective lifetime of the microbial filters and (2) collect and analyze condensate from the heat exchanger. This paper presents results showing that the filters provided effective microbial isolation throughout the 58 day tests. Condensate data analysis is also presented. The experiment was repeated for a two week period without filters to serve as a control.