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The maintenance of the cabin atmosphere aboard spacecraft is critical not only to its habitability but also to its function. Ideally, air quality can be maintained by striking a proper balance between the generation and removal of contaminants. Both very dynamic processes, the balance between generation and removal can be difficult to maintain and control because the state of the cabin atmosphere is in constant evolution responding to different perturbations. Typically, maintaining a clean cabin environment on board crewed spacecraft and space habitats is a central function of the environmental control and life support (ECLS) system. While active air quality control equipment is deployed on board every vehicle to remove carbon dioxide, water vapor, and trace chemical components from the cabin atmosphere, perturbations associated with logistics, vehicle construction and maintenance, and ECLS system configuration influence the resulting cabin atmospheric quality.

The Volatile Organic Analyzer (VOA) provided valuable data on the gaseous trace contaminants in the atmosphere of the International Space Station (ISS) from January 2002 through May 2003. The VOA has two analytical channels that provide redundancy, but fuse failures caused the loss of one channel in January 2003 and the remaining channel in May 2003. In early 2005 on-orbit diagnostics verified failed fuses, and in December 2005 the fuses were replaced during an inflight maintenance (IFM) session. The VOA has provided data on the ISS atmosphere since it was reactivated in 2005. This paper summarizes the IFM procedures and presents the on-orbit data from 2006 that were used to revalidate the VOA.

Archival sampling of potable water and condensate for ground laboratory analysis has been an important part of the Shuttle-Mir program because of coolant leaks and other events on Mir that have affected water quality. We report here the development of and preliminary results from a novel device for single phase humidity condensate collection at system pressures. The sampler consists of a commercial-off-the-shelf Teflon® bladder and a custom reinforced Nomex® restraint that is sized properly to absorb the stress of applied pressures. A plastic Luer-Lock disconnect, with poppet actuated by a mating Luer-Lock fitting, prevents the contents from being spilled during transport. In principle, a sampler of any volume can be designed. The empty mass of the reusable one-liter sampler is only 63 grams. Several designs were pressure tested and found to withstand more than 3 atmospheres well in excess of typical spacecraft water or wastewater system pressures.