US Navy Submarine Sea Trial of a NASA developed Multi-Gas Monitor

A Multi-Gas Monitor (MGM) was tested aboard a nuclear submarine during a routine 76 day patrol. NASA’s goal is to study submarines as closed environment analogs to spacecraft and to share development successes with other US government agencies. MGM’s core tunable diode laser spectroscopy technology was developed by Vista Photonics Inc, using Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants and expanded for various spacecraft monitoring applications using NASA program funding. The MGM measures oxygen, carbon dioxide, ammonia and water vapor in ambient air, displays concentrations with temperature and pressure, and stores 30 second moving averages. The sea trial involved locating MGM in a well ventilated area, connecting it to ship power prior to departure, and allowing it run automatically during the entire patrol. Data was stored within MGM for later retrieval. Crew intervention was limited to checking MGM’s display periodically to verify operation. Several weeks after the vessel returned to port, the MGM with its data was retrieved. The paper describes the results of the successful sea trial, comparing MGM data with both Central Atmosphere Monitoring System (CAMS) data and typical International Space Station (ISS) atmosphere ranges measured by a similar MGM during a recent space flight technology demonstration