Development of Absorbers for the Safe Implementation of Sabatier Carbon Dioxide Reduction Aboard the International Space Station

Risk assessments performed on the Sabatier Carbon Dioxide Reduction Assembly (CRA) indicated a need to prevent liquid water from reaching the vacuum vent as a result of component failures. Liquid water can freeze at the vacuum vent line pressure and result in a cascade failure to the Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) that shares the same vacuum vent line. Since the CDRA is a critical piece of life support equipment, this failure mode has a Catastrophic hazard severity. This paper describes the development of a large and a small absorber to protect the vacuum line from water entry. The component requirements, configurations and capabilities are described. Application of this absorber technology to other system needs is also proposed. Development of these critical components will help to achieve the desired technology maturity for the CRA and bring the CRA technology closer to a flight design.