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Carbon dioxide (CO2), a natural product of human metabolism, accumulates quickly in sealed environments when humans are present, and can induce headaches, among other symptoms. Major resources are expended to control CO2 levels to concentrations that are tolerable to the crews of spacecraft and submersible craft. It is not practical to control CO2 levels to those found in the ambient environment on earth. As NASA looks ahead to long-duration missions conducted far from earth, difficult issues arise related to the management and effects of human exposure to CO2. One is the problem of “pockets” of CO2 in the habitat caused by excess generation of the gas in one location without a mechanism to purge the area with fresh air. This results in the crew rebreathing CO2 from their exhaled breath, exposing them to a much higher concentration of CO2 than whole-module measurements would suggest. Another issue is the potential increased sensitivity to CO2 in microgravity.

NASA has unique requirements for the development and application of air quality standards for human space flight. Such standards must take into account the continuous nature of exposures, the possibility of increased susceptibility of crewmembers to the adverse effects of air pollutants because of the stresses of space flight, and the recognition that rescue options may be severely limited in remote habitats. NASA has worked with the National Research Council Committee on Toxicology (NRCCOT) since the early 1990s to set and document appropriate standards. The process has evolved through 2 rounds. The first was to set standards for the space station era, and the second was to set standards for longer stays in space and update the original space station standards. The update was to be driven by new toxicological data and by new methods of risk assessment for predicting safe levels from available data. The last phase of this effort has been completed.

The Volatile organic analyzer (VOA) has been operated on the International Space Station (ISS) throughout 2002, but only periodically due to software interface problems. This instrument provides near real-time data on the concentration of target volatile organic contaminants in the spacecraft atmosphere. During 2002, a plan to validate the VOA operation on orbit was implemented using an operational scheme to circumvent the software issues. This plan encompassed simultaneous VOA sample runs and collection of archival air samples in grab sample containers (GSC). Agreement between the results from GSC and VOA samples is needed to validate the VOA for operational use. This paper will present the VOA validation data acquired through November 2002.

The Volatile Organic Analyzer (VOA) was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard STS-105 in August 2001. This instrument has provided the first near real-time data on the concentrations of trace contaminants in a spacecraft atmosphere. The VOA data will be used to assess air quality on ISS in nominal and contingency situations. Until the VOA presence on ISS, archival samples that were analyzed weeks if not months after the flight were the only means to obtain spacecraft air quality data on volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Especially in contingency situations, real-time data is important to help direct crew response and measure the effectiveness of decontamination efforts. The development and certification of the VOA has been chronicled in past ICES papers. This paper will discuss the preparation of the VOA for ISS operations. Also, examples of VOA data acquired during flight will be presented to demonstrate the value of the instrument in assessing the ISS environment.

The Toxicology Laboratory at Johnson Space Center (JSC) had provided the combustion products analyzer (CPA) since the early 1990s to monitor the spacecraft atmosphere in real time if a thermodegradation event occurred aboard the Shuttle. However, as the operation of the International Space Station (ISS) grew near, an improved CPA was sought that would include a carbon monoxide sensor that did not have a cross-sensitivity to hydrogen. The Compound Specific Analyzer-Combustion Products (CSA-CP) was developed for use on the International Space Station (ISS). The CSA-CP measures three hazardous gases, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, and hydrogen chloride, as well as oxygen. The levels of these compounds in the atmosphere following a thermodegradation event serve as markers to determine air quality. The first permanent ISS crew performed the CSA-CP checkout operations and collected baseline data shortly after arrival aboard the ISS in December 2000.

The crew of flight 2A.1 that manned the International Space Station (ISS) assembly mission (STS-96) in May 1999 experienced symptoms that they attributed to poor air quality while working in the ISS modules. Some of these symptoms suggested that an accumulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the work area could have contributed to temporary health impacts on the crew. Currently, a fixed-position CO2 monitor in the FGB is the only means of measuring this air contaminant aboard ISS. As a result of this incident, NASA directed the Toxicology Laboratory at Johnson Space Center (JSC) to deliver a portable CO2 monitor for the next ISS assembly mission (STS-101). The Toxicology Laboratory developed performance requirements for a CO2 monitor and surveyed available CO2 monitoring technologies. The selected portable CO2 monitor uses nondispersive infrared spectroscopy for detection. This paper describes this instrument, its operation, and presents the results from ground-based performance testing.

Spacecraft modules that are last purged with clean air several months before they are entered by humans on orbit require careful management. The crew must not be exposed to harmful concentrations of air pollutants when they first enter. The magnitude of the pollution the crew will encounter depends on the volume of the module, the length of time since the last clean-air purge or scrub, the inherent offgassing rate of the materials in the module, the interior temperature of the module while offgassing occurs, and the system leak rate. The time of the last module purge or scrub can be several months before crew entry, so it is essential that the offgassing rate within the module be measured over a suitable interval of time to estimate pollution levels with confidence. Air samples were taken from the STS-74 Russian Docking Module, the STS-79 Spacehab, and the ISS Node 1 prior to launch to predict pollution levels at crew first entry.

Experiences during the Shuttle and NASA/Mir programs illustrated the need for a real-time volatile organic analyzer (VOA) to assess the impact of air quality disruptions on the International Space Station (ISS). Toward this end, a joint development by the Toxicology Laboratory at Johnson Space Center and Graseby Dynamics (Watford, UK) produced a 1st generation VOA that has been delivered and is ready for the first 5 years of ISS operation. Criteria for the selection of the 1st generation VOA included minimizing the size, weight, and power consumption while maintaining analytical performance. Consequently, a VOA system based upon gas chromatography/ion mobility spectrometry (GC/IMS) was selected in the mid-90’s. A smaller, less resource-intensive device than the 1st generation VOA will be needed as NASA looks beyond ISS operations. During the past three years, efforts to reduce the size of ion mobility spectrometers have been pursued.