Investigation of Desiccants and CO2 Sorbents for Exploration Systems 2016-2017

Date

2017-07-16

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

47th International Conference on Environmental Systems

Abstract

NASA has embarked on the mission to enable humans to explore deep space, including the goal of sending humans to Mars. This journey will require significant developments in a wide range of technical areas as resupply and early return are not possible. Additionally, mass, power, and volume must be minimized for all phases to maximize propulsion availability. Among the critical areas identified for development are life support systems, which will require increases in reliability as well as reduce resource usage. Two primary points for reliability are the mechanical stability of sorbent pellets and recovery of CO2 sorbent productivity after off-nominal events. In this paper, we discuss the present efforts towards screening and characterizing commercially-available sorbents for extended operation in desiccant and CO2 removal beds. With minimized dusting as the primary criteria, a commercial 13X zeolite was selected and tested for performance and risk.

Description

James Knox, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), USA
Gregory Cmarik, NASA MSFC/ES62 - Jacobs Engineering and Science Services and Skills Augmentation Group (ESSSA), USA
David Watson, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), USA
Lee Miller, NASA MSFC/ES62 - Jacobs Engineering and Science Services and Skills Augmentation Group (ESSSA), USA
Timothy Giesy, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), USA
ICES302: Physio-chemical Life Support- Air Revitalization Systems -Technology and Process Development
The 47th International Conference on Environmental Systems was held in South Carolina, USA on 16 July 2017 through 20 July 2017.

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Keywords

adsorption, carbon dioxide, sorbent screening, ECLSS, ECLS, Life Support

Citation