Development of the Crew Dragon ECLSS

SpaceX designed the Crew Dragon spacecraft to be the safest ever flown and to restore the ability of the United States to launch astronauts. One of the key systems required for human flight is the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS), which was designed to work in concert with the spacesuit and spacecraft. The tight coupling of many subsystems combined with an emphasis on simplicity and fault tolerance created unique challenges and opportunities for the design team. During the development of the crew ECLSS, the Dragon 1 cargo spacecraft flew with a simple ECLSS for animals, providing an opportunity for technology development and the early characterization of system-level behavior. As the ECLSS design matured a series of tests were conducted, including with humans in a prototype capsule in November 2016, the Demo-1 test flight to the ISS in March 2019, and human-in-the-loop ground testing in the Demo-2 capsule in January 2020 before the same vehicle performs a crewed test flight. This paper describes the design and operations of the ECLSS, the development process, and the lessons learned.