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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.

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.