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The Boeing Company under the teaming agreement with the Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation and in compliance with the NASA Phase 1 contract had the responsibilities for the CEV architecture development of the Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) system under the NASA Phase 1 contract. The ECLS system was comprised of the various subsystems which provided for a shirt-sleeve habitable environment for crew to live and work in the crew module of the CEV. This architecture met the NASA requirements to ferry cargo and crew to ISS, and Lunar sortie missions, with extensibility to long duration missions to Moon and Mars. This paper provides a summary overview of the CEV ECLS subsystems which was proposed in compliance with the contract activities.

The Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) is the first crew transport vehicle to be developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the last thirty years. The CEV is being developed to transport the crew safely from the Earth to the Moon and back again. This year, the prime contractor has been selected, requirements have been refined, and development areas are being pursued. The Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) system, which includes the life support and active thermal control systems, is moving one year closer to performing on orbit.

As part of preparing for the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) worked on developing the requirements that drive the emergency gas consumables. Emergency gas is required to support Extravehicular Activities (EVA), maintain the cabin pressure during a cabin leak for the crew to don their suits, and to recover the cabin following a toxic event or a fire.

Future human exploration missions to the Moon and Mars as envisioned and being planned by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will involve extensive extravehicular activities (EVA's) on these planetary bodies. It will be necessary for crewmembers to don protective space suit assemblies in order to work and conduct scientific exploration activities in the harsh Lunar and Martian environments. Of prime concern is the requirement for providing the necessary and appropriate mobility features for a pressurized space suit while maintaining efficient levels of effort and relative comfort to the crewmembers during extensive periods of EVA's. A series of KC-135 aircraft reduced gravity flight demonstrations were conducted to evaluate general mobility performance characteristics of the Apollo, Shuttle and Mk III advanced technology model space suits in simulated Lunar (1/6 Earth) and Mars (0.37 Earth) gravity environments.

The Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), also known as Orion, is the first crew transport vehicle to be developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the last thirty years. The CEV is being developed to transport the crew safely from the Earth to the Moon and back again. This year, the vehicle went through a major redesign to reduce weight, refine requirements, and further development. The design of the Orion Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) system, which includes the life support and active thermal control systems, moved one year closer to performing on orbit. This paper covers the Orion ECLS development from April 2007 to April 2008.

The Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) is the first crew transport vehicle to be developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the last thirty years. The CEV is being developed to transport the crew safely from the Earth to the Moon and back again. The mission is similar to the Apollo approach with expanded capabilities and extended durations to support a larger crew and a longer mission. The Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) system, which includes the life support and thermal control systems, will have to meet these new requirements taking advantage of the latest in component development where necessary and applicable.

An EMU water processing kit (Airlock Coolant Loop Recovery – A/L CLR) was developed as a corrective action to Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) coolant flow disruptions experienced on the International Space Station (ISS) in May of 2004 and thereafter. Conservative schedules for A/L CLR use and component life were initially developed and implemented based on prior analysis results and analytical modeling. The examination of post-flight samples and EMU hardware in November of 2006 indicated that the A/L CLR kits were functioning well and had excess capacity that would allow a relaxation of the initially conservative schedules of use and component life. A relaxed use schedule and list of component lives were implemented thereafter. Since the adoption of the relaxed A/L CLR schedules of use and component lives, several A/L CLR kit items, transport loop water samples and sensitive EMU transport loop components have been examined to gage the impact of the relaxed requirements.

High pressure oxygen onboard the ISS provides support for Extra Vehicular Activities (EVA) and contingency metabolic support for the crew. This high pressure O2 is brought to the ISS by the Space Shuttle and is transferred using the Oxygen Recharge Compressor Assembly (ORCA). There are several drivers that must be considered in managing the available high pressure O2 on the ISS. The amount of O2 the Shuttle can fly up is driven by manifest mass limitations, launch slips, and on orbit Shuttle power requirements. The amount of O2 that is used from the ISS high pressure gas tanks (HPGT) is driven by the number of Shuttle docked and undocked EVAs, the type of EVA prebreath protocol that is used and contingency use of O2 for metabolic support. Also, the use of the ORCA must be managed to optimize its life on orbit and assure that it will be available to transfer the planned amount of O2 from the Shuttle.

Advanced space suit mobility studies were successfully conducted during the period of May 2-17, 1998, under representative Lunar and Mars-like terrain conditions at remote field site locations in the Flagstaff, Arizona, area. The sites visited included Cinder Lake, a volcanic ash area that was an actual Apollo-era test site with simulated craters developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS); SP Mountain, an area that contained a young lava field with extensive rock rubble; Grand Falls, a canyon area that contained a variety of rock outcroppings, volcanic ash, and rock rubble; and Meteor Crater, a young impact crater area that contained various slopes with loose rock rubble. The test activities were supported by a team of JSC personnel utilizing the MK III advanced space suit technology demonstrator suit and a NASA modified commercial liquid air backpack system. The suit test subject was Dr. Dean Eppler, a trained field geologist.