Preparations for 2nd US Navy Submarine Sea Trial Utilizing NASA and US Navy Analyzers

In 2017, a team consisting of representatives from the US Navy, NASA and industry conducted the testing of two NASA-developed analyzers onboard a submarine, fostering a mutually beneficial relationship and the successful transition of analyzing technologies between very similar closed-atmospheric environments. The first NASA-developed analyzer was the tunable diode laser spectroscopy (TDLS)-based Multi-Gas Monitor (MGM) mainly monitoring life gases, and the second was a gas chromatography/differential mobility spectrometer-based Air Quality Monitor (AQM) observing select volatile organic compounds. Both of these analyzers had previously been deployed on the International Space Station (ISS) with proven success of long-term operation in a closed atmosphere.

The Navy remains interested in performing recurring evaluations of alternative atmospheric monitoring equipment and technologies to maintain and improve onboard submarine atmospheric monitoring. Furthermore, the performance of this sea trail supports NASA�s goal of studying submarines as closed environment analogs to spacecraft. Preparations for the second sea trial on a Navy submarine are ongoing and strongly leverage technologies in development under an existing US Navy Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant. The following technologies are presently under consideration: cavity ringdown spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, tunable laser absorption spectroscopy and photoacoustic spectroscopy. Additionally, discussions with NASA continue concerning incorporation of a successor to the MGM, and a modified AQM based on the findings of the initial sea trial.

During the sea trial, the selected analyzers will sample from the same locations as existing onboard atmospheric equipment for comparison purposes and will be operated continuously for a duration of months with little crew intervention beyond ensuring operation. This paper will provide an overview of the decision-making behind the technologies selected, the preparations for the sea trail and results, and comparisons of the data recovered from the analyzers, if full execution can occur prior to submittal of the paper.