Compatibility of Russian Life-Support Systems to Future Space Missions

Abstract

Whereas only a few years ago the United States and Russia were competitors in the space race, joint participation is now being encouraged in the form of international conferences and technical cooperation. In response to the free flow of information, this paper presents a discussion of technical and operating data for Russian water-recovery and air-revitalization systems, and examines their operating parameters in relation to U.S. system constraints. The advantages of studying existing hardware are numerous, including the availability of flight data, alternative technologies for research and design at reasonable costs and time frames, and joint interactions for a new generation of life-support systems with maximum closure capabilities. The paper introduces operational characteristics, design flow rates, and power requirements of six environmental control systems. The analysis of flow rates and power consumption demonstrates that the hardware developed and tested in Russia can be used for future joint space missions. In addition, the hardware has performed safely under flight conditions with little maintenance required.