Environmental Control and Life Support for Deep Space Travel

NASA is working with UTAS Space, Land, and Sea to develop concepts that group Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) systems into logical palletized modules allowing for the maximum use of common components and the development of unique methods and design concepts that support in-flight maintenance and repair to support future exploration platforms. This new approach, developing Palletized ECLS Module designs, is intended to allow previously qualified hardware to be readily integrated into evolving exploration life support platforms. The intent of this paper is to summarize the approach to developing these modules and summarize advancements made over the first seven months of development. Areas of advancement expected to be reviewed in this paper include grouping of ECLS functions onto unique modules, developing a list of common components (valves, sensors, fans, etc.), proposing Palletized Module geometry, in-situ integration, and in-flight maintenance features and techniques.