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ANITA (Analysing Interferometer for Ambient Air) is a flight experiment precursor for a permanent continuous air quality monitoring system on the ISS (International Space Station). For the safety of the crew, ANITA can detect and quantify quasi-online and simultaneously 33 gas compounds in the air with ppm or sub-ppm detection limits. The autonomous measurement system is based on FTIR (Fourier Transform Infra-Red spectroscopy). The system represents a versatile air quality monitor, allowing for the first time the detection and monitoring of trace gas dynamics, with high time resolution, in a spacecraft atmosphere. ANITA operated on the ISS from September 2007 to August 2008. This paper summarises the results of ANITA's air analyses and compares results to other measurements acquired on ISS during the operational period.

Astrium investigates Methane Pyrolysis in the perspective of long-duration exploration missions. In particular this process, which recovers Hydrogen from Methane, allows reaching the maximum closure level of the Air Revitalization System ARES. Past studies were reviewed in the light of today's technical advancement and a technology trade-off, supported by bread boarding, is performed. Current activities do concentrate on Critical technology selection and feasibility demonstration including bread boarding and testing, Methane Pyrolysis Assembly (MPA) operational interfaces with ARES Potential applications of MPA for other exploration capabilities, like in-situ resources utilization (Moon and Mars) The paper presents the achievements so far.

During the last years extensive work has been done to design and develop the Closed-Loop Air Revitalization System ARES. The potential of ARES e.g. as part of the ISS ECLSS is to significantly reduce the water upload demand and to increase the safety of the crew by reducing dependence on re-supply flights. The design is adapted to the interfaces of the new base lined Russian MLM module as possible location for a future installation of ARES. Due to the lack of orbital support equipment and interfaces to a waste water bus, to a feed water supply line and due to the availability of only one single vent line it was necessary to make the ARES process water loop as independent as possible from the host vehicle. Another optimization effort was to match the CO2 desorption profile with the available hydrogen flow to achieve a sufficient water recovery performance, while meeting all related safety requirements, minimizing complexity and improving reliability.

ECOSIM is a software tool for continuous simulation of systems which makes possible a combined representation of different physical aspects of a system, such as fluid flows, chemical reactions, electrical phenomena, and analogue and digital controls, in a single model. ECOSIM is a true modular simulation tool. The user can easily develop re-usable submodels and libraries of parametric components in the ECOSIM language and by taking advantage of the abstractions provided by the program. It is also possible to call FORTRAN or C subroutines. Mathematical modelling is based on an underlying differential algebraic equation solver, which overcomes the common drawbacks of simulators based on ordinary differential equation solvers. This permits very rich equation sets to be employed in the model which in turn opens the door to multi-disciplinary simulation. These capabilities make ECOSIM a very powerful tool for the simulation of Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSSs).

NIRSpec is a near-infra-red spectrometer and one of the four instruments onboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The JWST observatory will be placed at the second Lagrange point (L2). The instrument will be operated at about 30 Kelvin. Temperature stability and controlled heat rejection to dedicated JWST radiators are important issues of the NIRSpec thermal design. Besides thermal insulation, the NIRSpec Optical Assembly Cover also has to provide light tightness and stray light suppression to prevent unwanted light entering the instrument. Air tightness is needed to allow a controlled purge gas flow for contamination prevention while allowing proper air venting during launch. Because of mass constraints a cover employing two-foil Kapton blankets supported by aluminum posts and a wire tent was chosen. Failure tolerance and cleanliness are other important design drivers. This paper describes the design solutions established to fulfil the contrary requirements

Astrium investigates Methane Pyrolysis in the perspective of long-duration exploration missions. In particular this process, which recovers Hydrogen from Methane, allows reaching the maximum closure level of the Air Revitalization System ARES, see figure 1. Past studies as presented in ref. /1/ had been reviewed in light of today's technical advancement and a technology trade-off, supported by bread boarding, resulting in the pre selection of the plasma technique to perform the Methane Pyrolysis. In parallel two methods for plasma provision are investigated: Direct Current Plasma, sustained by a discharge arc rotating in a nozzle to supply energy to the flowing through carrier gas. Micro Wave (MW) Plasma, sustained by a MW within a Quartz tube embedded in a MW resonator cuboid Study activities did concentrate on Development testing of pre selected plasma Pyrolysis technology.

In the frame of contracts to ESTEC an advanced adaptive high temperature insulation and an innovative safety enhancing secondary protection have been developed and tested by HPS. Both solutions can be used together to create a new thermal protection concept in order to make it lighter, cheaper and safer.

European Space Agency's (ESA's) Columbus module was launched on February 7, 2008. This marks the completion of more than 10 years of development. It is a major step forward for Europe in the area of Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) as Columbus contains several major assemblies which have been developed in Europe. These include the Condensing Heat Exchanger, Condensate Water Separator and the Cabin Fans. The paper gives a short overview of the system and its features and it will report the experiences from the initial activation and operations phase.

ESA has been developing regenerative physicochemical air revitalisation technology for more than 20 years. The effort is now maturing into a flight demonstration experiment which is planned to be located in the Columbus module on ISS. The experiment shall be sized for a crew of three. It will comprise a CO2 concentration assembly, a Sabatier reactor and an electrolyser. The paper describes the adaptation of ARES to the available Columbus interfaces as well as ARES development status, performances, benefits to the ISS and operational agreements with ISS partners.

The launch and activation of ESA's Columbus module in early 2008 marked the completion of more than 10 years of development. Since then the Columbus ECLS is operating, including its major European ECLSS assemblies such as Condensing Heat Exchanger (CHX), Condensate Water Separator, Cabin Fans and Sensors. The paper will report the experiences from the first year of operations in terms of events, failures and lessons learned. Examples of this is the description of some off-nominal situations (such as Condensate Removal and IMV Return Fan failure, and relevant troubleshooting), and the preparation to Columbus Reduced Condensation Mode, as requested by NASA in order to minimize the crew time needed to empty Condensate Water Tanks in US Lab.

The Closed-Loop Air REvitalisation System ARES is a regenerative life support system for closed habitats. With regenerative processes the ARES covers the life support functions: 1. Removal of carbon dioxide from the spacecraft atmosphere via a regenerative adsorption/desorption process, 2. Supply of breathable oxygen via electrolysis of water, 3. Catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide with hydrogen to water and methane. ARES will be accommodated in a double ISPR Rack which will contain all main and support functions like power and data handling and process water management. It is foreseen to be installed onboard the International Space Station (ISS) in the Columbus Module in 2013. After an initial technology demonstration phase ARES shall continue to operate thus enhancing the capabilities of the ISS Life Support System as acknowledged by NASA [5]. Due to its regenerative processes ARES will allow a significant reduction of water upload to the ISS.

After 11 months of successful operation onboard the ISS US laboratory Destiny, the air quality monitors ANITA (Analyzing Interferometer for Ambient Air) was brought back to Earth on STS126 (ULF2). ANITA is a technology demonstrator flight experiment for continuous air quality monitoring inside the crewed cabin of the ISS with low detection limits and high time resolution. For the first time, the dynamics of the detected trace gas concentrations could be directly resolved by ANITA and correlated to gas events in the cabin. The system is the result of a long term ESA technology development programme initiated more than seventeen years ago. The ANITA mission was a cooperative project between ESA and NASA. ESA's responsibilities were the provision of the H/W, the data acquisition and the data evaluation. NASA was responsible for the launch, accommodation and operation onboard ISS, data download and the transportation of ANITA back to the Earth.

This paper reports on the thermal testing of METOP (METerological OPerational satellite) Payload Module Engineering Model, conducted in May/June 2001 at ESTEC’s Large Space Simulator (LSS). The paper describes the logic for the selection of the test configuration, the test phases and the performed test sequences. The test results are presented and the correlation results between predicted and measured temperatures are discussed.

The Herschel satellite is a space based telescope designed for the investigation of sub millimeter radiation from astronomical objects. The cryogenic system is an essential part of the telescope’s Extended Payload Module (EPLM). The cryogenic system has to provide an environment of sufficiently low temperatures to assure the proper functioning of the scientific payload. Main component of the cryogenic system is the cryostat, a huge vacuum vessel (see: Figure 1) with various cryogenic components inside. In order to qualify the components of the cryogenic system, multiple tests such as leak tests, thermal cycle tests, pressure cycle tests and vibration tests are performed. In this paper the test program for two cryo components, the rupture disc and a safety valve is discussed. The testing philosophy is presented and selected results of tests at ambient and low temperatures are shown.

CryoSat is the first satellite of ESA's Living Planet Programme realised in the framework of the Earth Explorer Opportunity Missions. CryoSat is a radar altimeter mission dedicated to determine trends in the ice masses of the Earth. The overall spacecraft configuration was driven by the budget constraints applicable for the opportunity mission, the high inclination orbit with drifting orbit plane and the stringent stability requirements for the radar altimeter antennas. Innovative thermal design solutions were needed for the following items: The instrument antennas have to comply with very stringent pointing stability requirements. The star trackers need to be mounted at a thermally adverse position and still have to be maintained on low temperature levels.

Metop (METeorological OPerational satellite) is a series of three satellites designed to monitor the climate and improve weather forecasting. This paper describes the thermal analysis, thermal testing performed, and relevant lessons learned. For the thermal analysis campaigns it focuses on: exchange and correlation of reduced thermal mathematical models established in various software formats sizes and content of the models, in particular automatic generation of reduced models from the detailed models uncertainties definitions of thermal interfaces The lessons learned from the thermal testing campaigns apply to: selection of test environment, using solar simulation and/or infra-red techniques selection of test cases based on thermal design driving parameters and/or test chamber capabilities adequate instrumentation (i.e. thermocouples, test heaters) for all critical components (un)expected events e.g.

During the last years extensive work has been done to design and develop the Closed Loop Air Revitalisation System ARES. The potential of ARES e.g. as part of the ISS ECLSS is to significantly reduce the water upload demand. The current activities concentrate on the development of a full-scale demonstrator with ‘engineering model’ quality. The demonstrator will include the functions of CO2 concentration, CO2 reduction and oxygen generation. All components will fit into one ISPR. The design will minimize the number of external interfaces in order to achieve a high degree of independence with respect to accommodation on the ISS. The paper describes the current development status and touches on critical technology tests for performance optimization.

An orbital flight test program for a fixed alkaline electrolyte (FAE) electrolyser stack is planned to be performed in September 2003 on board a Spacehab mission. The flight experiment is supposed to demonstrate the readiness of the FAE technology as one essential component to close the oxygen loop on board the ISS by means of an Air Revitalization System, ARES. The paper describes the design of the experiment, the current development status and the intended test program in space and shows its programmatic relation to ARES.

The current ECLS baseline of the International Space Station ISS contains an open oxygen loop. Breathable oxygen, generated by electrolysis of water, is supplied to all habitable modules. The crew of max. 7 astronauts converts the oxygen into metabolic carbon dioxide, which needs to be removed from the ISS atmosphere. Adsorption of CO2 is achieved through molecular sieves, desorption of CO2 is conducted by evacuation into space. This open process needs approx. 1500 kg of water upload mass annually. More than 75 % of this upload mass can be saved, if the open oxygen loop will be closed. This paper outlines the closed loop air revitalization system of Astrium, ARES, which has been successfully tested in closed chamber tests. It demonstrates in detail the technical application of ARES on ISS and outlines the commercial benefits. The second part of the paper describes ARES for a Mars habitat with a closed oxygen and hydrogen loop.

In 1995 the European Space Agency did award a C/D Contract for the design & development of an ECLS Subsystem for the Multi Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) to Astrium’s ECLS ‘Center of Competence’ that built the ECLSS for Spacelab already. Actually first MPLM modules were successfully flown to the ISS with the Astrium built ECLSS qualified as ‘excellent’ by the crew having asked permission to sleep in there. In parallel the design and development of an ECLS for Europe’s Columbus module did commence and is actually close to completion. In view of the above a broad set of qualified and even space proven ECLS equipment is now ‘on-hands’ to thoroughly compose respectively derive the ECLS subsystems of future applications e.g. HabModule, CRV and Space Hotel at a limited delta design and validation effort thus fitting into the tighter financial budgets of the manned space programs to come.