Air Handling and Atmosphere Conditioning Systems for Manned Spacecraft: A Design and Performance Data Survey

As the complexity of manned spacecraft increases, close consideration of Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) systems design becomes important. Mission design topics and flight performance data for a subset of the overall ECLS system, the Air Handling and Atmosphere Conditioning (AH&AC) system, are presented to aid in designing systems for future manned missions. Included are such topics as crew habitable volumes, air circulation velocities, atmospheric pressures, electrical component and metabolic cooling, ventilation fan designs, and contaminant removal systems. The condensed information in this paper represents the first step in a much larger internal study with the goal of optimizing the design and efficiency of physical/chemical life support systems, using flight data and “lessons learned” to support this goal.