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The advent of permanently operating space laboratories as part of the International Space Station Freedom raises challenging requirements also for the thermal and environmental control of those laboratories. Enhanced crew size, power dissipation due to a broad range of experiments, flexibility with respect to payload reconfiguration and rack interchangeability, to name only a few, typically are such requirements. The paper is devoted to the analysis of these requirements and related conceptual design solutions in the light of overall system aspects with special emphasis on the permanently Attached Laboratory of the European Columbus Programme. In particular the following subjects will be addressed: loops concept factors like parallel /serial /multi loop/single loop and reconfiguration of water cooling and air cooling loops.

The Environmental Control System (ECS) of two of the three configurations of the Columbus Programme, namely the Columbus Attached Laboratory (APM) and the Free Flying Laboratory (MTFF) provides a micro environment in space to support safe and comfortable working conditions for the crew and necessary resources to perform experimental activities. Recent developments in the international in-orbit infrastructure, i.e. the Space Station Freedom (SSF) with the APM as European contribution and the European elements MTFF with HERMES and the ARIANE-5 launcher are rapidly converging towards matured engineering and programmatic goals. The restructuring activities (SSF), detailed reconsideration of key requirements (MTFF) and cost saving options task force (APM) are examples which have already, or will considerably impact the ECS of the involved Columbus flight configurations.

The design of the Environmental Control System (ECS) of the COLUMBUS Attached Pressurized Module (APM) has lately undergone a series of major modifications. These were on one side due to the increased technical maturity of the program and on the other side due to the agreed common understanding amongst the three partners (NASA/ESA/NASDA) that some functions need to be considered at overall Space Station level and therefore their relevant implementation shall have an high level of commonality. A typical example was the introduction of a set of fire detection and suppression requirements which, being jointly applicable to the US, European and Japanese modules, led to significant modification of the APM internal architecture. The implementation of a similar design for the fire detection and suppression function ensures a unified approach for the safety management of the Space Station under emergency conditions related to these particular hazards.