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EXOMARS is a European-led space exploration mission, currently under development by the European Space Agency (ESA) that will send a robotic rover to the surface of Mars. The EXOMARS rover is a “robotic mission” which will provide Europe with new technologies for the exploration of Mars, specifically the surface Rover and its Drill and Sample Preparation and Distribution System (SPDS). The EXOMARS spacecraft will be launched from the Guiana Space Centre (Kourou) in 2013: it will consist of the Carrier Module (CM) and a Descent Module (DM). The DM is consisting of the Entry and Descent System (EDS), the Landing Platform with the Rover Support and Egress System (SES) and the Airbags System. The scientific payloads are accommodated in two separate assemblies: the Pasteur Payload installed onboard the Rover, and the Geophysical Science Package, mounted on the Landing Platform. The Rover accommodates as well a drill capable of collecting soil samples down to 2 m below the Mars surface.

EcosimPro is the European Space Agency (ESA) standard tool to support Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS or ECLS) analysis. Processes used in ECLSS are multiple: fluid flow, heat transfer, chemical reactions, electro-chemical, biological, etc. As a result, EcosimPro is designed as a multi-disciplinary and flexible tool that can be easily adapted to simulate very different kinds of processes and systems. There is a standard library of EcosimPro, which is mainly adapted to model air loops of conventional ECLSS. Some extensions to this library have been implemented to perform detailed fluid flow analysis which are beyond the scope of the traditional fluid flow solvers available in Thermal Analysis software. The standard ECLSS library is well adapted to the thermo-hydraulic analysis of air cabin loops, but CELSS (Controlled Ecological Life Support System) and ATCS (Active Thermal Control System) have also been modeled by developing specific libraries of components.

At present, limited tools are available to model atmosphere control and supply systems simply, in order to allow quick design assessments based on analytical performances. In this context, the utilization of PC based ESACAP adapted as an Atmosphere Control and Supply (ACS) simulation tool is described. The analyses results shown in this paper refer to the activities of MPLM baseline re-definition carried out in accordance with the Space Station re-configuration. As a consequence, in several cases the described analyses reflect conservative assumptions and have been performed in a parametric way so as to take the uncertainties into account.