Studying extended space missions confirmed the need of in-depth investigations of spacecraft internal atmosphere trace gas contamination, which bears toxic hazard and crew comfort reduction.
A mobile trace gas monitoring system, consisting of a combined gaschromatograph/mass spectrometer, using air as carrier gas, was modified and tested. This paper reports on the performance test results, acquired in ECLSS Testbed trials and acquired during a 4 weeks isolation experiment of a 6 men crew in a test chamber (ISEMSI).
Besides the development effort on the trace gas monitoring device, a material life test on solid amine is on the way since two years now. The offgassing products released by this weak basic ion exchange resin, which is used in a regenerable carbon dioxide concentrator, are analyzed in this test. The paper describes the methods and findings of these offgassing tests.
Finally, intermediate results of a trace gas monitoring study, initiated in Dec. 1990, will be presented, in which various monitoring strategies and suitable “state-of-the-art” technologies are investigated on their applicability for near term and long term manned space missions (COLUMBUS, HERMES, EMSI).
The work has been performed under contract of the European Space Agency.