Browsing by Author "Borrego, Melissa"
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Item Advancements in Logistics Reduction for Exploration Missions(2023 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2023-07-16) McKinley, Melissa; Ewert, Michael; Borrego, Melissa; Orndoff, Evelyn; Fink, Patrick; Sepka, Steven; Richardson, Justine; Hill, CurtisManagement of logistics on exploration missions includes both looking for ways to minimize the quantities, mass and volume of various consumables, supplies, spares and equipment as well as ways to minimize the crew time needed for locating and handling those items. Also included are ways to minimize the waste, handling and resultant products from the processes of maintaining a crew on these missions. The Logistics Reduction project encompasses technologies for management of waste, trash, autonomous logistics, and clothing. This paper provides a status of work in these areas including recent accomplishments and challenges encountered. Future objectives will also be covered along with the work currently in progress. Specifically, the paper will cover technologies in waste management, namely, the Universal Waste Management System (UWMS) or exploration toilet and work on an alternative waste collection container, the Alternate Fecal Canister. Trash management technologies work on the Trash Compaction and Processing System (TCPS) and Trash to Gas (TtG) is summarized with progress to date as well as information on how Jettison as an option is related. Progress and summary of recent accomplishment on the RFID (Radio Frequency ID) Enabled Autonomous Logistics Management (REALM) and the Autonomous Logistics (AL) technologies is detailed. Advanced Clothing System (ACS) and work in the area of Systems Engineering and Integration (SE&I) is also included. Status of the technologies, accomplishments and how the focus areas inform program decisions will be addressed.Item Development, Build and Certification of the Alternate Fecal Canister (AFC) Hardware for the NASA Exploration Toilet(2024 International Conference on Environmnetal Systems, 2024-07-21) Borrego, Melissa; McKinley, MelissaOn longer range exploration missions, the mass and volume of critical hardware and consumables that will be needed to support crew will pose a big stowage challenge. This includes the hardware needed for the collection and storage of human metabolic waste. The amount of stowage needed for this hardware both before (empty) and after (full) use will be a significant burden on the overall spacecraft habitable volume, layout, and design. To help with this challenge, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has developed a collapsible canister for the collection and containment of fecal deposits. The Alternate Fecal Canister (AFC) is an alternative to the exploration toilet hard-sided fecal canister. The AFC is collapsible in its empty state which is a volume benefit to smaller vehicles on longer missions. In addition, the use of lighter-weight materials provides a reduction in mass of the overall container. This paper will provide a summary of the AFC design including final flight design and build, acceptance and qualification testing completed, final certification and delivery and forward plans for a technology demonstration with the exploration toilet on the International Space Station (ISS). In addition, a summary of issues and final resolution encountered during flight build and testing will also be provided. As part of the acceptance and certification process for AFC, the hardware was also put into several rounds of odor testing with the support of the White Sands Test Facility (WSTF). The details, planning and anomalies identified during odor testing will also be summarized in this paper. Finally, a brief overview of potential future design upgrades including changes to address any crew feedback from the ISS demonstration will be discussed.Item Evolution of the Next Exploration Toilet through Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) Testing(2023 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2023-07-16) Borrego, Melissa; Walker, Mary; Carmona, Yvette; Eifert, Alexandra; Marshall, AlisaHuman waste collection in space is a unique and necessary function that all crewmembers must perform. The variability in how each crewmember uses the toilet to urinate and defecate introduces complexities and challenges with regards to overall hardware design. Because of this variability, it is important to consider crew inputs in all aspects of a toilet design especially with regards to crew interfaces that could impact overall waste collection. Access to crew feedback is essential to the design process and should be considered early and often through the various design phases. In 2020, NASA started a project for the Human Landing System (HLS) program to develop a Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) toilet option. The project is known as the Lavatory On-Orbit (LOO). During the early development of the LOO, the project team conducted several crew evaluations to collect and summarize valuable crew feedback on system design, function, and overall usability to influence the next design iteration. Because every person could use the system differently in space, it was extremely important to collect and analyze the data in a very methodical manner to appropriately influence the design based on the evaluation results. Establishing a standard process ensures consistent data collection from one evaluation to another, helps to maintain privacy for each test subject’s inputs and removes any potential bias from test subject to test subject. To date, the team has completed four crew evaluations on prototypes for the different LOO hardware. This paper will summarize the methodology used to conduct the evaluations as well as how data was collected and analyzed. The paper will also provide details on each of the evaluations and how the design was updated based on the results.Item Excavation of Exploration Toilet Fecal Canister from ISS Operations and Future Mission Impacts(2024 International Conference on Environmnetal Systems, 2024-07-21) McKinley, Melissa; Borrego, Melissa; Ewert, MichaelSpace exploration requires accommodations for crew members similar to survival on Earth including food and water, clothing, and protection from the environment. In addition, allowances for biological processes such as breathing, defecation and urination must be provided. In a micro-gravity environment, these are particularly challenging. Optimizing the consumables needed for these activities is a vital part of the spacecraft design as well as providing mass/volume for science cargo and the crew needs such as food and clothing. NASA has collected use rates for the consumables needed for defecation and urination over the decades of human-rated space travel. Most recently, the exploration toilet demonstration on International Space Station (ISS) provided data on defecation in the form of a returned canister which collected 13 days of fecal deposits (demonstration was a single crew-member use, future demonstrations will include multiple crew member use), wipes, gloves and compaction plates. The canister was excavated by a dedicated team of engineers at Johnson Space Center (JSC) to provide the latest information on deposit size and weight, number of wipes and gloves used, and compaction efficiency which directly relates to the number of canisters needed. Although this is only one canister, the data found has been directly applied to manifest decisions for the Orion Artemis-2 mission. Future canisters will add to this data set. Details on what was found and how it compares to historical numbers as well as how it will be used for exploration missions will be covered in this paper.Item Exploration Toilet Integration Challenges on the International Space Station(49th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2019-07-07) Borrego, Melissa; Zaruba, Yadira; Broyan, James; McKinley, Melissa; Baccus, ShelleyOn the International Space Station (ISS) there are currently two toilets. One is located in the Russian’s Service Module and the other is located in the U.S. segment’s Node 3. A new Exploration Toilet will be integrated next to the existing Node 3 Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC). The Toilet will be evaluated as a technology demonstration for a minimum of three years. In addition, it will support an increase in ISS crew size due to Commercial Crew flights to ISS. The Toilet is designed to minimize mass and volume for Orion, the first Exploration vehicle. Currently ISS does not have a designated volume for an additional Toilet. Furthermore, operating the Toilet on ISS presents a different set of challenges as it must integrate into existing vehicle systems for urine processing. To integrate the Toilet on ISS, a suite of hardware was developed to provide mechanical, electrical, data, and fluid interfaces. This paper will provide an overview of the Toilet Integration Hardware design as well as the engineering challenges, crew interface provisions and vehicle integration complexities encountered during the concept and design phases.Item NASA Exploration Toilet Hardware Status and Crew Feedback from ISS Artemis-2 Demonstration(2024 International Conference on Environmnetal Systems, 2024-07-21) McKinley, Melissa; Borrego, Melissa; Darmetko, JeffThe Universal Waste Management System (UWMS), ISS operational nomenclature �Toilet�, was initially installed on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2020 with final installation completed in 2021. Technical progress continues to be made with each on-orbit operation and will ultimately culminate with nominal US crew use of the hardware on ISS. During 2023, the Artemis-2 Demonstration was started, and this paper discusses issues encountered, on-orbit troubleshooting, subsequent ground failure investigation and proposed repairs as well as near-term plans to resume the Artemis-2 demo. Also discussed is an update to the commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) Conductivity Monitor which is planned to be flown for the resumption of the demo along with additional UWMS hardware and Toilet Integration Hardware (TIH). An updated design of the commode seat and fecal bag for Artemis-2 UWMS will be demonstrated on ISS and a summary of the hardware is included in the paper. Use of the hardware during the first days of the aborted demonstration by crewmembers and feedback received is summarized as well as hardware updates resulting from that feedback. The paper will also provide an overview of the demo results to date that inform the Orion-installed UWMS unit and future manifesting of consumables for both Orion and ISS.Item NASA Exploration Toilet On-orbit Results and Impact on Future Missions(2023 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2023) McKinley, Melissa; Borrego, Melissa; Kaufman, Cory; Williamson, Jill; DeRees, KellyThe Universal Waste Management System (UWMS), which has the ISS operational nomenclature “Toilet”, was initially installed on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2020 with final installation completed in 2021. Technical progress continued to be made with each on-orbit operation that culminated in additional crew use of the UWMS on ISS. Additional problems were evaluated during troubleshooting and testing with the UWMS hardware using water and pretreat to simulate crew use. This paper summarizes the additional testing, troubleshooting and the results as well as characterizes the additional data obtained and summarizes the interpretation of the data to characterize the hardware’s operational nuances. Use of the hardware by crew is planned and will also be summarized. The paper will also describe the additional portions of the technology demonstration that were completed and the benefits that inform the Orion-installed UWMS unit and future manifesting of consumables for both Orion and ISS.Item NASA Universal Waste Management System and Toilet Integration Hardware Delivery and Planned Operations on ISS(50th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 7/12/2021) McKinley, Melissa; Fuller, Jim; Shaw, Laura; Carter, Donald; Borrego, Melissa; Broyan, James JrThe Universal Waste Management System (UWMS), Toilet, recently completed development, certification, and delivery for integration into both the International Space Station (ISS) and the Orion vehicle. Key goals are to develop a more compact and hygienic toilet for use on exploration missions. Toilet also provided improved designs for urine funnels and commode seat to improve the collection effectiveness for female crew members. Two largely identical units were developed, built and tested; Unit 2 slated for launch on Orion�s Artemis-2 mission was delivered in December 2019 for vehicle integration. Unit 1 for delivered in June 2020 for demonstration on ISS. Unit 1 was launched to ISS on NG-14 with planned installation before the end of 2020 and will provide early validation for the Artemis-2 mission. The UWMS provides collection of urine and feces in microgravity and is a critical function for NASA manned missions beyond ISS. Toilet Integration Hardware (TIH) was also included in the delivery of hardware to ISS. The TIH allows installation of the UWMS and the urine pretreatment equipment into Node-3 and provides the necessary hardware for connection to the ISS recycling systems. This paper will summarize the UWMS and TIH functions, critical issues addressed with this new hardware.Item NASA Universal Waste Management System and Toilet Integration Hardware Operations on ISS -- Issues, Modifications and Accomplishments(51st International Conference on Environmental Systems, 7/10/2022) McKinley, Melissa; Borrego, Melissa; Broyan Jr., JamesThe Universal Waste Management System (UWMS), which has the ISS operational nomenclature "Toilet", was initially installed on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2020 with final installation completed in 2021. Although technical issues were encountered that delayed installation and operations, progress was made towards the objectives of the project. Technical issue work arounds resulted in operation of the Toilet with use by male and female crew members in a controlled extended checkout and a longer nominal use. This paper will summarize operations of the Toilet and Toilet Integration Hardware in both of those configurations, problems encountered during installation and checkout, the modifications made to allow further usage on ISS, and the future modifications planned for nominal use. It will also describe the portions of the technology demonstration that were completed and the benefits from that work and how that knowledge informs the Orion-installed UWMS unit and future manifesting of consumables for both Orion and ISS.Item The Trash Compaction Processing System (TCPS) Technology Demonstration and Risk Reduction Updates FY23-FY24(2024 International Conference on Environmnetal Systems, 2024-07-21) Richardson, Tra-My; Sepka, Steve; Martin, Kevin; Borrego, Melissa; Ewert, Michael; McKinley, Melissa; Trieu, Serena; Pace, Gregory; Young, Janine; White, DouglasThe Next STEP Phase B Trash Compaction Processing System (TCPS) is being developed for a technology demonstration on the International Space Station (ISS) to process common consumables spacecraft trash such as clothing and food packing to reduce the volume, recover the water, safen, and shaped the trash for storage, jettison, reuse (e.g. radiation shielding) and recycling. Sierra Space is developing the flight demonstration hardware and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) continues to conduct risk reduction activities to vet operational scenarios ensure successful on-orbit tests. After the flight demonstration on ISS, the TCPS can be infused into NASA short- and long-term missions. This paper will discuss the rational for the updated requirement definitions outlined in the 2023 International Conference on Environmental System TCPS paper and the risk reduction activities. In addition, drawing from lesson learned in the development of the TCPS, a discussion of other compression technologies will be introduced.