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Active TRL 5 (started at 4, targeting 7)
NASA has developed a set of emergency response equipment to address spacecraft fire safety hazards. Because of the unique requirements of human spaceflight, much of this equipment has been developed in-house by NASA and maintained as Government Furnished Equipment (GFE). Human spaceflight missions beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) have spacecraft fire safety requirements that are more severe and more challenging. Without an opportunity to quickly return to earth, spacecraft fire safety systems must operate with a longer service life and protect the crew for a longer duration under more severe conditions.
This project develops a new version of an Emergency Breathing Apparatus, with improved capacity to capture and contain smoke particulates and fine suspended mist droplets from fire extinguisher discharge, and improved thermal performance.
State of the art, commercially available particulate filters are prone to clogging. This project develops a multiplex inertial (corkscrew) filter with improved capacity and reduced resistance to airflow.
Catalysts that convert carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide suffer two separate limitations related to thermal environments: 1) conversion performance drops in cold environments, 2) elevated concentrations of carbon monoxide result in breathing air that is too hot to safely breathe. This emergency breathing apparatus design exchanges the heat from exhaled breath with incoming air, resulting in a system that can safely operate in cold environments and delivering purified air that is not too hot to safely breathe, even at high carbon monoxide concentrations.
The project goal is to improve the safety performance of emergency breathing masks. One benefit relates to the capacity to capture and contain higher levels of smoke particulates and mist sized liquid droplets from fire extinguisher discharge. Multiplex inertial filters can capture and contain greater amounts of smoke particulates and fine liquid droplets, and still allow for easy airflow and low work of breathing. Another benefit relates to thermal management. In traditional filtering respirator systems, carbon monoxide removal performance is reduced in cold conditions. This filter design exchanges the heat from exhaled breath with incoming air, resulting in improved carbon monoxide removal performance in cold conditions. The catalytic conversion of carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide adds heat to the air. At high carbon monoxide concentrations, the incoming air is too hot to safely breathe. Exchanging the heat of exhaled air with incoming air allows for this system to safely operates at higher carbon monoxide concentrations without overheating the incoming breathing air.
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