Sorbent Development for CO2 and Water Vapor Removal from the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV)
NASA is developing a new crewed space vehicle, the Crew Exploration Vehicle or CEV, to replace the Space Shuttle in low Earth orbit and to allow for a return to the Moon. To achieve a low mass, the CEV has been designed with regenerative life support systems to remove CO2 and water vapor from the air flow. Through a sub-contract with Hamilton Sundstrand, students are working to develop new, more efficient sorbents (materials that will either absorb, take in, or adsorb, accumulate on the surface) to remove those two chemicals for the CEV.
To develop the sorbents, the students had to design, build, and test an absorption test rig, then begin to test various support materials (carbon, ceramics, and polymers) as well as the potential sorbents themselves. The testing is ongoing as new compounds are developed to experiment with.
Student participants and affiliations:
- Knittel Ansa, University of Hartford
- George Allen, University of Hartford
- Justin Garcia, Manchester Community College
- Shawn Poulin, University of Hartford
The Center
for Life Support and Sustainable Living is funded in part through a grant from the
National Science Foundation Advanced Technology Education program. Copyright
2008. All rights reserved.