Environmental Control Subsystems for Hyperbaric Chambers

NASA is currently developing an on-board hyperbaric chamber to treat decompression sickness during long-term space missions. The prototype pressure vessel is already complete and Mainstream is developing a pressurization subsystem that also addresses breathing gas delivery (oxygen generation) through a current SBIR effort. An environmental control subsystem (ECS) is desperately needed to perform thermal, moisture, carbon dioxide, particulate, and volatilized hydrocarbon control and monitoring in the hyperbaric chamber. In Phase I, Mainstream will complete the preliminary design of the ECS and demonstrate active thermal control with a laboratory prototype. Mainstream's highly innovative design will improve performance by 150-200% and reliability by 470% over current space-based heat pumps. Component size, weight, and power will be demonstrated. In Phase II, the entire ECS will be fabricated, integrated with Mainstream's pressurization and oxygen delivery subsystems, and life tested. The overall result of this program will be system hardware ready for flight-approval.