Boiling eXperiment Facility (BXF) Fluid Toxicity Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) with the Payload Safety Review Panel (PSRP)

A Technical Interchange meeting was held between the payload developers for the Boiling eXperiment Facility (BXF) and the NASA Safety Review Panel concerning operational anomaly that resulted in overheating one of the fluid heaters, shorted a 24VDC power supply and generated Perfluoroisobutylene (PFiB) from Perfluorohexane

An Overview of the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) Facility, and the Gravity-Dependent Phenomena Research Performed in the MSG on the International Space Station (ISS)

The Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) is a double rack facility aboard the International Space Station (ISS) designed for gravity-dependent phenomena investigation handling. The MSG has been operating in the ISS US Laboratory Module since July 2002. The MSG facility provides an enclosed working area for investigation manipulation and observation, The MSG's unique design provides two levels of containment to protect the ISS crew from hazardous operations. Research investigations operating inside the MSG are provided a large 255 liter work volume, 1000 watts of dc power via a versatile supply interface (120, 28, +/-12, and 5 Vdc), 1000 watts of cooling capability, video and data recording and real time downlink, ground commanding capabilities, access to ISS Vacuum Exhaust and Vacuum Resource Systems, and gaseous nitrogen supply. With these capabilities, the MSG is an ideal platform for research required to advance the technology readiness levels (TRL) needed for the Crew Exploration Vehicle and the Exploration Initiative. Areas of research that will benefit from investigations in the MSG include thermal management, fluid physics, spacecraft fire safety, materials science, combustion, reaction control systems, in situ fabrication and repair, and advanced life support technologies. This paper will provide a detailed explanation of the MSG facility, a synopsis of the research that has already been accomplished in the MSG and an overview of investigations planning to operate in the MSG. In addition, this paper will address possible changes to the MSG utilization process that will be brought about by the transition to ISS as a National Laboratory

New Technologies Being Developed for the Thermophoretic Sampling of Smoke Particulates in Microgravity

The Characterization of Smoke Particulate for Spacecraft Fire Detection, or Smoke, microgravity experiment is planned to be performed in the Microgravity Science Glovebox Facility on the International Space Station (ISS). This investigation, which is being developed by the NASA Glenn Research Center, ZIN Technologies, and the National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST), is based on the results and experience gained from the successful Comparative Soot Diagnostics experiment, which was flown as part of the USMP-3 (United States Microgravity Payload 3) mission on space shuttle flight STS-75. The Smoke experiment is designed to determine the particle size distributions of the smokes generated from a variety of overheated spacecraft materials and from microgravity fires. The objective is to provide the data that spacecraft designers need to properly design and implement fire detection in spacecraft. This investigation will also evaluate the performance of the smoke detectors currently in use aboard the space shuttle and ISS for the test materials in a microgravity environment

Properties of Smoke from Overheated Materials in Low-Gravity

Smoke particle size measurements were obtained under low-gravity conditions by overheating several materials typical of those found in spacecraft. The measurements included integral measurements of the smoke particles and physical sample of the particles for Transmission Electron Microscope analysis. The integral moments were combined to obtain geometric mean particle sizes and geometric standard deviations. These results are presented with the details of the instrument calibrations. The experimental results show that, for the materials tested, a substantial portion of the smoke particles are below 500 nm in diameter