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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.

The flight experiment ANITA (Analysing Interferometer for Ambient Air) has been developed within the long term European technology development programme on air monitoring in manned space cabins. Built under ESA responsibilities, ANITA has become an important inter agency cooperative activity on air monitoring with NASA. Within this cooperation, the system has recently been handed over to NASA ISS Medical Project (ISSMP) at Johnson Space Center to prepare the upcoming launch to the International Space Station (ISS) now with STS-118. The ANITA air analyser can detect and quantify online and with high time resolution 30 trace gases simultaneously with sub-ppm detection limits in addition to the always present background gases carbon dioxide and water vapour [6, 12]. This air quality monitor allows therefore the detection and monitoring of trace gas dynamics of the spacecraft atmosphere, providing continuous air monitoring as well as crew warning capability in case of malfunctions.

An advanced trace gas monitoring system for long duration manned space missions - such as the International Space Station - is discussed. The system proposed is a combination of a Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR) and a distributed ‘Smart Gas Sensor system (SGS). In a running multi-phase programme [1,2] the FTIR technology, applying novel analysis methods, has been demonstrated to handle multi-component gas measurements, including identification and quantification of 20 important trace gases in a mixture. In the current phase 3, initiated end of 1997, a fully operational FTIR technology demonstration model will be manufactured and tested. The SGS consists of an array of twenty electrically conductive polymer sensors supplemented with an array of quartz crystal microbalance sensors. The technology has been tested on the Russian MIR space station and is currently miniaturized into a second-generation flight model.

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 gives a status report on the flight experiment ANITA (Analysing Interferometer for Ambient Air), the development status of the successor unit ANITA II and spin-off activity such as the use of an ANITA-type instrument on a submarine. The ANITA system represents a precursor for ANITA II, a permanent continuous trace gas monitoring system on the International Space Station (ISS). The measurement task in a submarine environment is similar to the analysis in the closed environment on the ISS except for the different trace gases present. A proposed test measurement campaign on a submarine in 2006 is outlined in the paper. The ANITA air analyser can detect and quantify quasi on-line and simultaneously 30 trace gases with sub-ppm detection limits in addition to carbon dioxide and water vapour [4, 10].

This paper reports on the flight experiment ANITA (Analysing Interferometer for Ambient Air) and the development status of ANITA II. ANITA represents a precursor for ANITA II, a permanent continuous trace gas monitoring system on the International Space Station (ISS). For crew's safety the air analysers can detect and quantify quasi on-line and simultaneously 32 trace gases with ppm or sub-ppm detection limits. Thus, a crewed cabin air monitor is designed allowing the detection and monitoring of trace gas dynamics of a spacecraft atmosphere providing besides the continuous air monitoring activities, warning capability in case of malfunctions. ANITA will be accommodated in an Express Rack on US LAB Destiny. The transportation to ISS will be provided by Jules Verne, the first flight of the Automatic Transfer Vehicle (ATV) scheduled for May 2005. The more compact and improved measurement unit ANITA II is being designed for continuous air monitoring on ISS.