Development of a better, safer, emergency breathing mask for Orion astronauts

The Orion MPCV program needs an emergency breathing mask to protect the life and health of astronauts in the event of fire or chemical spill. The specific technical requirements of the Orion emergency breathing mask is similar to - but not identical to the needs of ISS. As a result of an SBIR phase II project, TDA Research, in partnership with Gentex, has developed a flight qualified emergency breathing system for use on ISS. The ISS emergency breathing system protects the crew from either an ammonia leak or products formed in a fire. The ISS emergency breathing system consists of a "one size fits all" hooded mask with a neck dam, and a set of two replaceable cartridges. The ISS has a series of isolation hatches, a relatively large volume, a 15 minute oxygen bottle based emergency breathing system, and a need to protect the crew for up to 8 hours. The ISS volume is large, and cabin atmosphere cleanup can take up to 8 hours. To meet the needs of ISS, the TDA/Gentex system is assembled on orbit at the time of the emergency, takes up to 5 minutes to assemble, uses a two cartridge system, and uses a replaceable cartridge system. The ISS system does not offer hot gas inhalation protection. The Orion capsule is small compared to ISS, and there is no isolation hatch. The emergency breathing mask needs to be donned in less than 30 seconds, it needs to be worn for 1 hour (the smaller Orion cabin atmosphere can be purified in less than 1 hour). The Orion mask needs to be immediately protect from either fire or chemical spill - without reconfiguring the mask. It is possible to adapt the ISS system for Orion needs. But an "ISS adapted" mask would be larger and heavier - because it would have two smaller cartridges instead of one larger one. It would have unnecessary leak paths due to the replaceable cartridges in the ISS system. Most significantly - the "ISS adapted" system would not offer any hot gas inhalation protection. The conversion of carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide is extremely exothermic - wearing an ISS mask in a 1% CO environment would result in inhalation gas temperatures to exceed 150 degrees F. In an ISS environment, with an isolation hatch to retreat to, this is acceptable. In Orion, where a relatively small fire event can cause CO levels to reach 1%, and there is no safe haven or isolation hatch to retreat to, it is important to offer hot gas inhalation protection. This CRP proposal outlines a plan to design an assess an emergency breathing system that specifically addresses Orion. It will have a single cartridge that will last >1hr. It will be designed to be stored in a compact space, and be donned quickly with no on-orbit assembly. It will be designed to have hot gas inhalation protection, so 1% levels of CO result in inhalation temperatures <113 degrees F. The likelihood of an astronaut using an emergency mask during a mission is fairly low, but the consequences of an inadequate mask can be severe. The expected benefits of this project is improved astronaut safety - fewer leak paths, better tolerance to smoke particulates, hot gas inhalation protection, and better tolerance to molten drip exposure. The expected outcome of this initial CRP project is: 1) develop a design for an emergency breathing mask that specifically addresses the needs of Orion, 2) develop an quantitative analysis of projected benefits (weight reduction, hot gas inhalation protection, donning time, etc.), 3) develop a cost estimate for taking the design to a Critical Design Review (CDR) level. If the quantitative assessment of benefits (as compared to the "ISS adapted" design) is favorable, the project team expects to submit a CRP proposal to the December 2015 call to develop the design to CDR level.

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