Regenerative CO ₂ -Control-A Technology Demand for European Manned Space Programs

The European Spacelab uses expendable means for CO₂ -control. Early investigations of an extension of the mission time beyond the 7 day nominal mission showed a remarkable mass penalty for this approach, compared with regenerative CO₂ -control. In view of long duration missions regenerative CO₂ -nontrol is mandatory.

Therefore a technology program has been setup, harmonized between ESA and DFVLR, screening possible methods, selecting one or two favoured ones and finally to build and test a breadboard.

This paper shortly summarizes the selection process of the methods, describes the initial breadboard and presents first test results. The scope of this paper will address the selection of adsorber materials, methods for regeneration, design of evaporators, the test hardware and the test data acquisition. Preliminary conclusion from the previous work will be drawn and the planning of the further program will be given.