Design and Performance of the Sorbent-Based Atmosphere Revitalization System for Orion

Validation and simulations of a real-time dynamic cabin model were conducted on the sorbent-based atmosphere revitalization system for Orion. The dynamic cabin model, which updates the concentration of H₂O and CO₂ every second during the simulation, was able to predict the steady state model values for H₂O and CO₂ for long periods of steady metabolic production for a 4-person crew. It also showed similar trends for the exercise periods, where there were quick changes in production rates. Once validated, the cabin model was used to determine the effects of feed flow rate, cabin volume and column volume. A higher feed flow rate reduced the cabin concentrations only slightly over the base case, a larger cabin volume was able to reduce the cabin concentrations even further, and the lower column volume led to much higher cabin concentrations. Finally, the cabin model was used to determine the effect of the amount of silica gel in the column. As the amount increased, the cabin concentration of H₂O decreased, but the cabin concentration of CO₂ increased.