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The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) carries cargo and re-supplies goods from the Earth to ISS. The Water Delivery System (WDS) is dedicated to transport and deliver up to 840 Kg of potable water. For Jules Verne mission, one of the three flight water tanks is filled with 280 kg of potable water. Two different types of water are required for the ISS according to the Russian and the US standards. With the first ATV flight, water compliant with Russian requirements is delivered. To guarantee the water quality to be delivered to ISS two parallel longevity tests have been carried out on the ground and flight water tanks. Starting from Turin tap water, SMAT produced, under Thales Alenia Space (TAS) supervision, flight water and water for pre-conditioning of on-ground and flight hardware. On the 26th of September, SMAT and Thales Alenia Space completed the production of “space water” for the first ATV flight.

The Mini Pressurized Logistic Module (MPLM) is designed to transport supplies and return cargo requiring a pressurized environment to and from the Space Station Freedom (SSF) via the National Space Transportation System (NSTS) Shuttle. The MPLM provides accommodation for a number of cargo racks, including two Freezer/Refrigerators (F/Rs) and one subsystem rack. The maintenance of the habitable conditions for the crew and the control of the MPLM thermal environment are carried out by the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) and the Thermal Control System (TCS). The ECLSS and TCS functional concepts are tailored to the peculiarities of the MPLM design, based on mass and volume minimization, maximum simplification and exploitation of the resources available at the SSF interface.

Air cooling of the avionics units (Subsystem equipment and Payloads) of the Columbus Pressurised Modules (PM) is performed via avionics loops, providing heat collection from dedicated racks and rejecting the collected heat load by means of an avionics heat exchanger (AHX). An overview of possible rack architectures, air loop accommodations and control solutions which are candidates for the Columbus PMs is presented. The system requirements have been assessed as a starting point, in order to define the requested capabilities and the constraints that the design of the rack and the loop has to fulfil. In particular, the architectures of the European single and double rack and of the U.S. double rack in Space Station Freedom (SSF) have been compared and the relevant options of accommodation in the avionics loops and functional interfaces have been investigated.

The Total Off-gassing test purpose is to determine the identity and quantity of trace gas contaminants offgassed in areas of spacecraft where the crew will breathe the atmosphere. Two different air sampling methods were adopted in parallel during the off-gassing tests on the Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules (MPLM) by Alenia Spazio. The first method, based on NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) requirements, foresees storage of collected air samples into stainless steel pressure cylinders. The second method proposed by ESA (European Space Agency), uses trace contaminants adsorption on Carbopack™ filled ceramic tubes. Sample lines route the samples collected inside the MPLM cabin, to the respective external collection points. Successively, the stored samples are chemically analyzed by Gas Chromatography / Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) techniques and the module offgassing rates are calculated.

Trace gaseous contamination in the cabin environment is a major concern for manned spacecraft, especially those designed for long duration missions, such as the International Space Station (ISS). During the design phase, predicting the European-built Columbus laboratory module’s contribution to the ISS’s overall trace contaminant load relied on “trace gas budgeting” based on material level and assembled article tests data. In support of the Qualification Review, a final offgassing test has been performed on the complete Columbus module to gain cumulative system offgassing data. Comparison between the results of the predicted offgassing load based on the budgeted material/assembled article-level offgassing rates and the module-level offgassing test is presented. The Columbus module offgassing test results are also compared to results from similar tests conducted for Node 1, U.S. Laboratory, and Airlock modules.

Potable water is undoubtedly one of the most critical resources for the International Space Station (ISS) crews. The amount and quality of this resource, mainly provided to the ISS by the Space Shuttle and Progress, and in the near future by logistic vehicles Automated Transport Vehicle (ATV) and HTV, must be compatible with the crew consumption needs and health-related requirements. For this purpose, potable water must satisfy very stringent quality requirements from chemical and bacteriological point of view. The definition of such requirements, resulting from medical studies, lessons learned, technical constraints, is reached in agreement among ISS International Partners. Two different quality standards are defined, one for the ISS Russian Segment, the other for the US Segment and other International Partners.

The Columbus Attached Pressurized Module (APM), part of the International Space Station (ISS), will support scientific, technological and commercial activities in a low earth orbit micro-gravity environment. Basic and applied research, technology development and demonstration will be accomplished in areas such as material sciences, life sciences and fluid physics. The APM, now in the detailed design C/D phase, will provide location for ten International Standard Payload Racks (ISPRs) and three storage racks, in an atmospheric pressure “shirt-sleeve” environment. The maintaining of habitable conditions and the provision of essential thermal-environmental services to payloads will be ensured by the APM Environmental Control System (ECS), as defined on the Columbus Payload Accommodation Handbook, Appendix C. The ECS will control cabin air pressure, composition, temperature and humidity and module surface temperatures, to ensure suitable environmental conditions for crew and ISPRs.