Air quality monitoring for the International Space Station applicable to aircraft cabins and cockpits

New multigas measurement technology has been developed as part of and in parallel with a series of projects for the European Space Agency (ESA). Based on well-established Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and novel calibration and analysis methods, ESA’s Analysing Interferometer for Ambient Air (ANITA) system has successfully demonstrated continuous air quality monitoring on the International Space Station (ISS). ANITA performed automatic multigas measurements in quasireal time with high sensitivity, specificity, stability and reliability. The novel analysis techniques are well suited also for general workplace air monitoring, industrial processes and other multicomponent measurement tasks.publishedVersio

The ANITA Air Monitoring Programme and Instrumentation – ISS and other Applications

This paper gives a status report on the flight experiment ANITA (Analysing Interferometer for Ambient Air), the development status of the successor unit ANITA II and spin-off activity such as the use of an ANITA-type instrument on a submarine. The ANITA system represents a precursor for ANITA II, a permanent continuous trace gas monitoring system on the International Space Station (ISS). The measurement task in a submarine environment is similar to the analysis in the closed environment on the ISS except for the different trace gases present. A proposed test measurement campaign on a submarine in 2006 is outlined in the paper. The ANITA air analyser can detect and quantify quasi on-line and simultaneously 30 trace gases with sub-ppm detection limits in addition to carbon dioxide and water vapour [4, 10]. This crewed cabin air quality monitor allows the detection and monitoring of trace gas dynamics of a spacecraft atmosphere, providing continuous air monitoring as well as crew warning capability in case of malfunctions. ANITA will be accommodated in an EXPRESS Rack on the US LAB Destiny. The transportation to ISS is provided by the first flight of the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). Unfortunately, this flight has been delayed until mid 2007. The ANITA team presently works on further improvements in the design and performance of ANITA

The ANITA Air Monitoring Programme and Instrumentation – ISS and other Applications

This paper gives a status report on the flight experiment ANITA (Analysing Interferometer for Ambient Air), the development status of the successor unit ANITA II and spin-off activity such as the use of an ANITA-type instrument on a submarine. The ANITA system represents a precursor for ANITA II, a permanent continuous trace gas monitoring system on the International Space Station (ISS). The measurement task in a submarine environment is similar to the analysis in the closed environment on the ISS except for the different trace gases present. A proposed test measurement campaign on a submarine in 2006 is outlined in the paper. The ANITA air analyser can detect and quantify quasi on-line and simultaneously 30 trace gases with sub-ppm detection limits in addition to carbon dioxide and water vapour [4, 10]. This crewed cabin air quality monitor allows the detection and monitoring of trace gas dynamics of a spacecraft atmosphere, providing continuous air monitoring as well as crew warning capability in case of malfunctions. ANITA will be accommodated in an EXPRESS Rack on the US LAB Destiny. The transportation to ISS is provided by the first flight of the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). Unfortunately, this flight has been delayed until mid 2007. The ANITA team presently works on further improvements in the design and performance of ANITA

The ANITA Air Monitoring Programme and Instrumentation – ISS and other Applications

This paper gives a status report on the flight experiment ANITA (Analysing Interferometer for Ambient Air), the development status of the successor unit ANITA II and spin-off activity such as the use of an ANITA-type instrument on a submarine. The ANITA system represents a precursor for ANITA II, a permanent continuous trace gas monitoring system on the International Space Station (ISS). The measurement task in a submarine environment is similar to the analysis in the closed environment on the ISS except for the different trace gases present. A proposed test measurement campaign on a submarine in 2006 is outlined in the paper. The ANITA air analyser can detect and quantify quasi on-line and simultaneously 30 trace gases with sub-ppm detection limits in addition to carbon dioxide and water vapour [4, 10]. This crewed cabin air quality monitor allows the detection and monitoring of trace gas dynamics of a spacecraft atmosphere, providing continuous air monitoring as well as crew warning capability in case of malfunctions. ANITA will be accommodated in an EXPRESS Rack on the US LAB Destiny. The transportation to ISS is provided by the first flight of the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). Unfortunately, this flight has been delayed until mid 2007. The ANITA team presently works on further improvements in the design and performance of ANITA

AsteroidFinder - The Space-Borne Telescope to Search for NEO Asteroids

This paper presents the mission profile as well as the optical configuration of the space-borne AsteroidFinder telescope. Its main objective is to retrieve asteroids with orbits interior to Earth’s orbit. The instrument requires high sensitivity to detect asteroids with a limiting magnitude of equal or larger than 18.5mag (V-Band) and astrometric accuracy of 1arcsec (1σ). This requires a telescope aperture greater than 400cm², high image stability, detectors with high quantum efficiency (peak > 90%) and very low noise, which is only limited by zodiacal background. The telescope will observe the sky between 30° and 60° in solar elongation. The telescope optics is based on a Cook type TMA. An effective 2°×2° field of view (FOV) is achieved by a fast F/3.4 telescope with near diffraction-limited performance. The absence of center obscuration or spiders in combination with an accessible intermediate field plane and exit pupil allow for efficient stray light mitigation. Design drivers for the telescope are the required point spread function (PSF) values, an extremely efficient stray light suppression (due to the magnitude requirement mentioned above), the detector performance, and the overall optical and mechanical stability for all orientations of the satellite. To accommodate the passive thermal stabilization scheme and the necessary structural stability, the materials selection for the telescope main structure and the mirrors are of vital importance. A focal plane with four EMCCD detectors is envisaged. The EMCCD technology features shorter integration times, which is in favor regarding the pointing performance of the satellite. The launch of the mission is foreseen for the year 2013 with a subsequent mission lifetime of at least 1 year

The AsteroidFinder Instrument

A summary on the proposed configuration, parameters and architecture of the AsteroidFinder telescope and focal plane array