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This Life Support Laboratory consists of a simulator of the spacecraft called Nautilus, which houses Air Revitalization Subsystem, Atmospheric Control and Supply, and Fire Detection and Suppression in the Equipment Area. There are supporting facilities including a Human Metabolic Simulator, simulated Low and Moderate Temperature Coolant Loop, chemical analysis bench, purified water supply, vacuum and gas supplies. These facilities are scheduled to be completed and start to operate for demonstration purposes by March 2005. There are an ARES Ground Model (AGM) and a Trace Contaminant Control Assembly in the ARS. The latter will be integrated with the AGM and a Condensing Heat Exchanger. The unit of AGM is being engineered, built, and will be delivered in early 2005 by EADS Space Division. These assemblies will be operated for sensitivity analysis, integration and optimization studies. The main goal is the achievement for optimal recovery of oxygen.

In the competitive market of the car industry today, companies need to continuously strive to optimize the performance, price and environmental properties of their products in order to survive. Wet clutches, as parts of transmission components of passenger cars are no exception. An understanding of how the wet clutch system functions and fails is necessary to optimize price and service life. The friction characteristics of the wet clutch system are determined by lubricant-surface interactions in the contact between the friction discs. Wet clutch failure can often be associated with the deterioration of friction characteristics which eventually leads to stick-slip or shudder. Consequently, knowledge of why and of how friction characteristics change over time is of the outermost significance to enable the understanding and prediction of wet clutch performance. As the lubricant is an essential component of the wet clutch system, lubricant ageing is a factor of importance.

Water quality standards have been completed for space vehicles and habitats for ingestion periods from 1 day to 1000 days. These standards are called spacecraft water exposure guidelines (SWEGs). The National Research Council Committee on Toxicology has worked with the Toxicology Group at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to set and document these standards. Prior to SWEG development, the practice of NASA was to apply the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) in the interpretation of any potential health effects from water pollutants. This practice had the potential to result in erroneous conclusions because MCLs are intended for lifetime exposures and are set to protect a much more diverse population than is present in the astronaut corps. However, for certain pollutants it was recognized that the stresses of spaceflight may make astronauts more susceptible to adverse effects.

Complex problems of maintaining environmental quality are closely associated with technologic expansion and growth; prime among these are the problems of water pollution and a degraded water resource. The intent of this discussion is to provide a reasonably comprehensive overview of water pollution and abatement measures in the industrialized United States, with some insight to public and private attitudes and policies with respect to pollution.

A Suit Water Membrane Evaporator (SWME) system was designed at JSC, NASA, for the Advanced Space Suit Portable Life Support System (PLSS). The SWME was investigated to provide a more robust and reliable method of heat transfer for PLSS heat load, providing an alternate technology to the current Shuttle EMU sublimator. The SWME is less sensitive to water contamination, provides gas venting capability to the PLSS thermal loop, and permits control of heat transfer rate via back pressure regulation. The tests served as a technology demonstration of SWME performance in a concentric, dual-sided design configuration, back pressure regulation under water vapor condition, and combined system compatibility. The tests provided preliminary data to characterize SWME performance and investigate the viability of backpressure regulation control.

GM de Mexico Ramos Arizpe Automotive Complex (RAAC) manufactures engines and passenger cars. Located in the northern part of Mexico, the RAAC water supply comes entirely from a subsurface aquifer whose drawdown rates presently exceed its recharge rate. The original wastewater treatment facilities, installed at the beginning of the RAAC operations, became inadequate as a result of more stringent wastewater discharge limits issued by SEDUE (Mexican EPA counterpart) in 1987 (see Table I). A Water Management Study was performed in 1986-7, to determine viable solutions to the problems of insufficient water supply and wastewater treatment. A three-phase Water Management Program was adopted.

An important milestone in the ongoing effort by NASA to develop and refine closed-loop water recycling systems for human space flight was reached during the summer of 1996 with the successful completion of Phase II of the Lunar Mars Life Support Testing Program at Johnson Space Center. Part of Phase II involved testing a water-recycling system in a closed test chamber continuously occupied by four human subjects for thirty days. The Phase II crew began the test with a supply of water that had been processed and certified for human use. As the test progressed, humidity condensate, urine, and wastewater from personal hygiene and housekeeping activities were reclaimed and reused several times. Samples were collected from various points in the reclamation process during the thirty day test. The data verified the water-processing hardware can reliably remove wastewater contaminants and produce reclaimed water that meets NASA standards for hygiene- and potable-quality water.

Water recovery from wastewater is essential for the success of long term missions. Honeywell Aerospace and the team comprising Thermodistillation Co. (Kiev, Ukraine) and NASA JSC Crew and Thermal Systems Division are developing an advanced wastewater processing subsystem that is based on centrifugal vacuum distillation that will be tested at the NASA JSC water lab. The wastewater processing cascade distillation subsystem (CDS) utilizes a multi-stage thermodynamic process to efficiently produce purified water, and its rotary centrifugal design provides gas/liquid phase separation and liquid transport (pumping) under microgravity conditions. The objective of the program is to demonstrate potable water recovery from various wastewater streams that is suitable to meet the requirements of present (ISS) and future (Lunar-Mars) human space missions. This paper presents the subsystem design and the cascade distiller operational evaluation.

Concentrated wastewater brines, produced by primary stage spacecraft water recovery systems, can be further processed to recover additional usable water supply. The Lunar Surface Systems Project at NASA-JSC identified brine dewatering technologies as a critical technology need. In response, the Exploration Life Support Office commissioned a study to summarize the technologies currently available, and recommend a development roadmap for future resources. This paper reviews some of the technologies under development within the government, in academia, and private industry, and outlines a proposed development strategy to meet technology needs for the Lunar Outpost.

An important function of life support systems developed for a long duration human mission to Mars is the ability to recycle water and air. The Bio-Regenerative Environmental Air Treatment for Health (BREATHe) is part of a multicomponent life support system and will simultaneously treat wastewater and air. The BREATHe system will consist of packed bed biofilm reactors. Model waste streams will be used for experiments conducted during the design phase of the BREATHe system. This paper summarizes expected characteristics of water and air waste steams that would be generated by a crew of six during a human mission to Mars. In addition to waste air and water generation rates, the chemical composition of each waste stream is defined. Specifically, chemical constituents expected to be present in hygiene wastewater, dishwater, laundry water, atmospheric condensate, and cabin air are presented.

This paper will present an overview of waste minimization and wastewater/material recovery practices implemented at Pratt & Whitney's North Haven, CT facility. We will also discuss some of the lessons learned since implementing many of the discussed technologies. Technologies used include process substitution and modification, atmospheric evaporation, ion exchange, electrowinning, and recovery of fume scrubber recirculation water. Processes effected include Woods Nickel Strike, Sulfamate Nickel Plate, Chrome Plate, Cadmium Cyanide Plate, Cadmium Chromate, Chrome Strip, Nickel Strip, Cadmium Strip, and Alkaline/Cyanide Descaling.

The ability of the water recovery system (WRS) designed for Phase II of the Lunar-Mars Life Support Test Project to remove viral contaminants was tested by challenging the system with bacteriophages MS-2 and PRD-1. Urine-pretreatment and ultrafiltration/reverse osmosis (UF/RO) steps each reduced the combined density of both bacteriophages from >109 to <1 Plaque-Forming Units (PFU)/100 mL. UF/RO also reduced the bacterial density from 108 to 107 Colony-Forming Units (CFU)/100 mL. Before UF/RO, the predominant species of bacteria in the water were Acinetobacter calcoacetious and Klebsiella pneumoniae; afterward, the predominant species were Burkholderia cepacia and B. picketti. The removal of the bacteriophages and the difference in predominant bacteria across the UF/RO step suggest that the Burkholderia had been established downstream of the UF/RO membranes before the test began.

There are many environmental issues in India. Air pollution, water pollution, garbage, vibration, noise pollution and pollution of the natural environment are all challenges for India. India has a long way to go to reach environmental quality similar to those enjoyed in developed economies. Pollution remains a major challenge and opportunity for India. The review of trends in farm practices and machinery development suggests that vibration & noise problems are still prevalent in agricultural situations, even though there has been a steady increase in the availability of materials and equipment for vibration & noise control over recent years. Diesel engine is the main source of power for agricultural equipments, such as water pump set, compressor, electric generator and tractor. Even it is one of the sources of vibration & noise in agricultural field. There is reluctance of the agricultural sector to use of vibration & noise control methods.

The microgravity environment of space introduces a major new variable for consideration that will affect the design and operation of bioreactors. Adequate aeration for aerobic bioreactors will be a challenge as will gas/liquid separation, removal of carbon dioxide and other bacterial metabolic waste products, control algorithms, and overall performance assessment. These challenges must be addressed in order to fully assess the efficacy of biological approaches to the recovery of potable water from wastewater in microgravity. The first step in this process is to define the fermentation parameters of the organism or consortia that will be used in these space bioreactors. This study was designed to investigate the ability of bacteria to degrade the space station detergent IGEPON.

Considerable amounts (400 ∼ 600 thousand tons) of waste vegetable oil in Japan are still flushed down the drain every year. Utilization of waste vegetable oil for diesel fuel leads to two advantages for environmental protection, to reduce CO2 emission from engines and to avoid water pollution of rivers. In this study, combustion characteristics of waste vegetable oil methyl ester (WME) are investigated in detail by not only engine test run but also observation of burning flames in a visual engine. As results indicate, WME shows rather better combustion state in the visual engine and lower smoke emission from a high-speed DI test engine than gas oil. Moreover, by emulsifying WME with water, further improvement of combustion and more than 18 % reduction of NOx emission is carried out.

An innovative technology has been utilized for precipitating zinc from industrial oily wastewater. A solids contact clarifier, consisting of a cylindrical top section and cone bottom with its compact design, offers effective metal removal and the advantage of indoor operation.

Involved in implementing environmental programs such as the one established by the 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act, utility contractors are part of a growing industry which already accounts for annual equipment purchases worth millions of dollars. The problems encountered in this type of contracting and how they are affected by equipment design and maintenance are discussed. The major ways in which equipment manufacturers could improve their products and services to better provide for the needs of this industry are also outlined.

An experimental screening of non-nitrogen containing ignition improvers was conducted to investigate the possible use of diesel/alcohol fuel blends in an unmodified CI engine. The five non-nitrogen containing ignition improvers were: Di-Tertiary Butyl Peroxide; O,O-t-Amyl-O (2-Ethyl hexyl) monoperoxycarbonate; 1,1 Bis-(t-butylperoxy)-3,3,5-trimethylcyclohexane; Tertiary Butyl Hydroperoxide; and t-Amyl Perbenzoate. Alcohol content tested ranged from 10% to 100% by volume. For diesel/alcohol fuel blends containing more than 10% alcohol, BTEs similar to pure diesel could only be achieved with the addition of an ignition improver additive. Since diesel/alcohol blends separate with water addition, additives to improve water addition phase stability were also investigated. The blend employing the preferred ignition improver additive was found to have a greater ability to stay in solution than a control diesel blend without the additive.

U.S. Army experience with water and wastewater recycling/reuse has been continuous through several decades as water has historically been a vital logistic and tactical concern. A brief history is presented of the wastewater recycle program addressing shower and Laundry wastewater, including the development of a simple and economical batch treatment technology which allows the most efficient use of water during theater of operations use and in critical combat situations. Direction for future research and development is also presented in generic format to ensure that adequate data is collected to answer health related questions.

Transport is a fundamental aspect of community prosperity and it is closely connected to its development. Transport plays an essential role among the production cycles of a nation, and the commercial vehicle (trucks or buses) makes it possible to become true. From the days when commercial vehicles first appeared, to the early ''80s, main research themes were those intended to increase "productivity" and "profitability." In the ''80s a new and common ecological awareness had induced the industrial sector, and specially motor vehicle manufacturers to try reducing atmosphere and water pollution effects as much as possible. Starting with the ''80s, new needs have appeared in addition to the "usual" ones, entailing entirely new research trends for commercial vehicles.