The Advanced Crewed Cabin Air Monitor ANITA – Results from its Continuous Operations on ISS

Paper number

IAC-08.D3.3.6

Author

Dr. Timo Stuffler, Kayser-Threde GmbH, Germany

Coauthor

Dr. Herbert Mosebach, Kayser-Threde GmbH, Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Dirk Kampf, Kayser-Threde GmbH (KT), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Norbert Henn, DLR, Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Gijsbert Tan, European Space Agency (ESA), The Netherlands

Coauthor

Mr. Wolfgang Supper, European Space Agency (ESA), The Netherlands

Coauthor

Mr. Atle Honne, SINTEF, Norway

Year

2008

Abstract

Launched to the International Space Station with STS 118 on August 9th 2007, the air monitor ANITA (Analysing Interferometer for Ambient Air) has been successfully put into operation. ANITA is a technology demonstrator flight experiment being able to continuously monitor with high time resolution the air conditions within the crewed cabins of the ISS. The system has its origin in a long term ESA technology development programme. The ANITA mission itself is an ESA-NASA cooperative project, where ESA is responsible for the provision of the H/W, the data acquisition and data evaluation. NASA’s responsibilities are launch, accommodation in the US Lab Destiny, operation and data download.     

ANITA has been calibrated to detect and quantify simultaneously and quasi on-line over 30 of the most important trace gases in a crewed space cabin. The optimised instrument in combination with sophisticated analysis SW - based on advanced simulations and statistical regression techniques - forms a reliable and compact multi-gas air monitor. Beside continuous measurements in the vicinity of the gas monitor, a specific gas-bag-pump unit allows for gas analyses from each module of the Space Station by the simple transport of remotely sampled gas bags back to the measurement unit.  

The paper describes the measurement principle, the H/W and the analysis S/W including an overview on the unique data on ISS air conditions. Additionally, an outlook into the future will be given highlighting the potential of the ANITA technology to monitor the air conditions in a manned Moon basis or in crewed vehicles flying into the Earth orbit or to Moon and Mars. The work described has been performed under contract of the European Space Agency.

Abstract document

IAC-08.D3.3.6.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-08.D3.3.6.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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