The spacesuit water membrane evaporator (SWME) is being developed to perform thermal control for advanced spacesuits and to take advantage of recent advances in micropore membrane technology. This results in a robust heat-rejection device that is potentially less sensitive to contamination than is the sublimator. The Membrana Celgard X50-215 microporous hollow-fiber (HoFi) membrane was selected after recent extensive testing as the most suitable candidate among commercial alternatives for continued SWME prototype development. The current design was based on a previous design that grouped the fiber layers into stacks, which were separated by small spaces and packaged into a cylindrical shape. This was developed into a full-scale prototype consisting of 14,300 tube bundled into 30 stacks, each of which is formed into a chevron shape and separated by spacers and organized into three sectors of 10 nested stacks. The new design replaced metal components with plastic ones, and has a custom built flight like backpressure valve mounted on the side of the SWME housing to reduce backpressure when fully open. The spacers that provided separation of the chevron fiber stacks were eliminated. Vacuum chamber testing showed improved heat rejection as a function of inlet water temperature and water vapor backpressure compared with the previous design. Other tests pushed the limits of tolerance to freezing and showed suitability to reject heat in a Mars pressure environment with and without a sweep gas. Tolerance to contamination by constituents expected to be found in potable water produced by distillation processes was tested in a conventional way by allowing constituents to accumulate in the coolant as evaporation occurs. For this purpose, the SWME cartridge has endured an equivalent of 30 EVAs exposure and demonstrated minimal performance decline.
A multi-year effort has been carried out at NASA Johnson Space Center to develop an advanced extravehicular activity (EVA) Portable Life Support System (PLSS) design intended to further the current state of the art by increasing operational flexibility, reducing consumables, and increasing robustness. Previous efforts have focused on modeling and analyzing the advanced PLSS architecture, as well as developing key enabling technologies. Like the current International Space Station Extravehicular Mobility Unit PLSS, the advanced PLSS comprises three subsystems required to sustain the crew during EVA, including the Thermal, Ventilation, and Oxygen Subsystems. This effort has culminated in the construction and operation of PLSS 1.0, a test bed that simulates full functionality of the advanced PLSS design. PLSS 1.0 integrates commercial off-the-shelf hardware with prototype technology development components, including the primary and secondary oxygen regulators, Ventilation Subsystem fan, Rapid Cycle Amine swingbed carbon dioxide and water vapor removal device, and Spacesuit Water Membrane Evaporator heat rejection device. The overall PLSS 1.0 test objective was to demonstrate the capability of the Advanced PLSS to provide key life support functions including suit pressure regulation, carbon dioxide and water vapor removal, thermal control, and contingency purge operations. Supplying oxygen was not one of the specific life support functions because the PLSS 1.0 test was not oxygen rated. Nitrogen was used for the working gas. Additional test objectives were to confirm PLSS technology development components performance within an integrated test bed, indentify unexpected system-level interactions, and map the PLSS 1.0 performance with respect to key variables such as crewmember metabolic rate and suit pressure. Successful PLSS 1.0 testing completed 168 test points over 44 days of testing and produced a large database of test results that characterize system-level and component performance. With the exception of several minor anomalies, the PLSS 1.0 test rig performed as expected; furthermore, many system responses trended in accordance with pre-test predictions. Nomenclature BPV= backpressure valve Btu = British thermal unit CO 2 = carbon dioxide COTS = commercial off-the-shelf DACS = data acquisition and control system
The spacesuit water membrane evaporator (SWME) is being developed to perform the thermal control function for advanced spacesuits to take advantage of recent advances in micropore membrane technology in providing a robust heat-rejection device that is potentially less sensitive to contamination than is the sublimator. Principles of a sheet membrane SWME design were demonstrated using a prototypic test article that was tested in a vacuum chamber at JSC in July 1999. The Membrana Celgard X50-215 microporous hollow fiber (HoFi) membrane was selected after recent contamination tests as the most suitable candidate among commercial alternatives for HoFi SWME prototype development. A design that grouped the fiber layers into stacks, which were separated by small spaces and packaged into a cylindrical shape, was developed into a full-scale prototype consisting 14,300 tube bundled into 30 stacks, each of which are formed into a chevron shape and separated by spacers and organized into three sectors of ten nested stacks. Vacuum chamber testing has been performed characterize heat rejection as a function of inlet water temperature and water vapor backpressure and to show contamination resistance to the constituents expected to be found in potable water produced by the distillation processes. Other tests showed the tolerance to freezing and suitability to reject heat in a Mars pressure environment.
A Venting Gas Trap (VGT) was designed, built, and tested at NASA Johnson Space Center to eliminate dissolved and free gas from the circulating coolant loop of the Orion Environmental Control Life Support System. The VGT was downselected from two different designs. The VGT has robust operation, and easily met all the Orion requirements, especially size and weight. The VGT has a novel design with the gas trap made of a five-layer spiral wrap of porous hydrophobic hollow fibers that form a cylindrically shaped curtain terminated by a dome-shaped distal plug. Circulating coolant flows into the center of the cylindrical curtain and flows between the hollow fibers, around the distal plug, and exits the VGT outlet. Free gas is forced by the coolant flow to the distal plug and brought into contact with hollow fibers. The proximal ends of the hollow fibers terminate in a venting chamber that allows for rapid venting of the free gas inclusion, but passively limits the external venting from the venting chamber through two small holes in the event of a long-duration decompression of the cabin. The VGT performance specifications were verified in a wide range of flow rates, bubble sizes, and inclusion volumes. Long-duration and integrated Orion human tests of the VGT are also planned for the coming year. Nomenclature
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