Innovative Method for Water and CO2 Sequestration and Reclamation in Long Duration PLSS

NASA has a clear need to develop new technology to meet the challenging objectives of long- term space missions included in the Artemis Program. New objectives include sending astronauts to the surface of the Moon and then embarking on missions to Mars. Many of the missions exploring the lunar surface and Martian environment will be longer than current extravehicular activity (EVA) time frames, and therefore the development of new, robust, and lightweight life support systems will be required. In these EVA applications, the control as well as conservation of CO2 and water is critical. Previously developed technologies, such as the Metox and RCA suffer from high volume and mass allocations as well as the inability to reclaim removed resources, and are thus, not suitable for advanced environments. In this SBIR Phase I project, Reaction Systems developed a new method to control CO2 and H2O in EVA missions that will maintain CO2 at low levels, accommodate extended mission times, and recover both CO2 and water. Reaction Systems’ approach is to utilize a high-capacity liquid sorbent and a high surface area contactor to control the compounds of interest. Once collected, the CO2 and H2O can be separated from the liquid sorbent for repurpose in a method that also regenerates the sorbent. Test results obtained in the project show that this approach is very promising. Reaction Systems has identified a liquid sorbent that has a higher capacity for CO2 compared to the silver oxide used in the METOX, which results in a reduction of the required sorbent weight. In addition, tests carried out under realistic conditions show that the system can maintain CO2 levels well below the 2.5 mm Hg limit even at the higher metabolic rates.