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The Centrifuge Rotor (CR) system is a significant new development that will provide artificial gravity for gravitational experiments involving relatively large biological specimens such as small animals and plants. The Engineering Model (EM) test has been performed to evaluate the rotating performance and the vibration suppression system including active balancing system, vibration isolation mechanism, and active damping system. The EM test results show that the CR can create a stable artificial gravity environment. However, some CR technical issues have been clarified through the EM test such as the active balancing control, the active damping control, the vibration isolation mechanism, the structural reliability, and the air drag effect. The solution toward the Flight Model (FM) design will be discussed.

As a result of the preliminary study for the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) of the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), the functions of the JEM ECLSS are defined as follows: atmosphere control and supply, temperature and humidity control (including intramodule and intermodule air ventilation), atmosphere revitalization (CO2 removal, contamination control and monitoring), fire detection and suppression, water management, and rescue provision, while the supply and recovery/processing of gas and water depend on the Space Station (SS) core ECLSS. Also, advanced technology developments for cabin air flow distribution system, regenerative CO2 removal system, gas/water separating system, etc. were performed.

A water recovery system from waste water is essential for long-duration manned space missions. The waste water consists of shower, laundry, hand wash, urine, and humidity condensate. The water recycle system also contributes to the reduce quantity and frequency of resupply from the Earth. There are many candidate technologies to process the waste water for reuse. The total water recovery and management system is combined with several process technologies. The authors focused on the membrane distillation process which is one candidate of water recovery system. Since 1997, the authors have been studying the water recovery system with low pressure membrane distillation method. This paper describes the study and results of preliminary experiments.

The Centrifuge Rotor (CR), scheduled to be launched in 2003, provides an artificial gravitational environment for biological specimens housed in habitats on the International Space Station (ISS). The resource supply and video/data exchange with habitats during rotation and the suppression of disturbance forces to both the ISS microgravity racks and CR internal habitats are very challenging key technologies. This paper presents the CR development status and CR system outline including system requirements, configuration and the development plan to develop the key technologies.

The photocatalytic oxidation of trace contaminants such as human metabolite gas and outgas from the component materials over a UV-illuminated film of titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been studied to apply for an environmental purification in manned spacecraft. The trace contaminants studied were as follows: methanol, ethanol, acetal-dehyde, toluene, acetone, methane, ethylene, ammonia, 1,4-pentadiene, hydrogen sulfide, carbonyl sulfide, hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Most of these compounds are the representative human metabolic gas. It was found that these compounds except for methane, ethylene, carbonyl sulfide, hydrogen and carbon monoxide are sufficiently removed in the photocatalytic reactor. This report describes the result of the removal test using the photocatalysts performed in National Space Development Agency of Japan/Tsukuba Space Center (NASDA / TKSC).