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Hamilton Sundstrand has developed a scalable evaporative heat rejection system called the Multi-Fluid Evaporator (MFE). It was designed to support the Orion Crew Module and to support future Constellation missions. The MFE would be used from Earth sea level conditions to the vacuum of space. This system combines the functions of the Space Shuttle flash evaporator and ammonia boiler into a single compact package with improved freeze-up protection. The heat exchanger core is designed so that radial flow of the evaporant provides increasing surface area to keep the back pressure low. The multiple layer construction of the core allows for efficient scale up to the desired heat rejection rate. A full-scale unit uses multiple core sections that, combined with a novel control scheme, manage the risk of freezing the heat exchanger cores. A four-core MFE prototype was built in 2007.

Hamilton Sundstrand is under contract with the NASA Johnson Space Center to develop a scalable, evaporative heat rejection system called the Multi-Fluid Evaporator (MFE). It is being designed to support the Orion Crew Module and to support future Constellation missions. A MFE would be used from Earth sea level conditions to the vacuum of space. The current Space Shuttle configuration utilizes an ammonia boiler and flash evaporator system to achieve cooling at all altitudes. With the MFE system, both functions are combined into a single compact package with significant weight reduction and improved freeze-up protection. The heat exchanger core is designed so that radial flow of the evaporant provides increasing cross-sectional area to keep the back pressure low. Its multiple layer construction allows for efficient scale up to the desired heat rejection rate.

Technology developers understand the need to optimize technologies for human missions beyond Earth. Greater benefits are achievable when systems that share common interfaces are optimized as an integrated unit, including taking advantage of possible synergies or removing counterproductive efforts at the mission level. Life support, extravehicular activity (EVA), and habitability are three systems that have significant interfaces with the crew, and thus share many common interfaces with each other. Technologies and architectures developed for these systems need to account for the effect that design decisions will have on each of the other systems. Many of these impacts stem from the use of water by the crew and the way that the life support system provides and processes that water. Other resources, especially air-related, can have significant impacts as well.

A cryofreezer system is being evaluated as a new method of compressing and storing carbon dioxide (CO2) in an Advanced Life Support (ALS) Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS). A cryocooler is used to provide cold temperatures and heat removal while CO2 freezes and accumulates around a coldtip. The CO2 can then be stored as a liquid or high-pressure gas after it has been accumulated. This system was originally conceived as an In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) application for collecting CO2 from the Mars atmosphere to be converted to methane fuel with a Sabatier reaction. In the ALS application, this system could collect CO2 from the International Space Station (ISS) Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) for delivery to the Sabatier reactor. The Sabatier reaction is an important part of proposed Air Revitalization System (ARS) for ALS, and technology sharing is often possible between ISRU and ARS applications in CO2 processing systems.