Following the Columbia accident, the EMUs (Extravehicular Mobility Units) onboard the ISS (International Space Station) went unused for an extended period of time. Upon startup, the units experienced a failure in the coolant systems. The failure resulted in a loss of EVA (Extravehicular Activity) capability from the US segment of the ISS. A failure investigation determined that chemical and biological contaminants and byproducts from the ISS Airlock Heat Exchanger, and the EMU itself, fouled the magnetically coupled pump in the EMU Transport Loop Fan/Pump Separator leading to a lack of coolant flow. Remediation hardware (the Airlock Coolant Loop Remediation water processing kit) and a process to periodically clean the EMU coolant loops on orbit were devised and implemented. The intent of this paper is to report on the successful implementation of the resultant hardware and process, and to highlight the go-forward plan.
Performance of the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Airlock Coolant Loop Remediation (A/L CLR) Hardware
Sae Int. J. Aerosp
International Conference On Environmental Systems ; 2008
Sae International Journal of Aerospace ; 1 , 1 ; 261-267
2008-06-29
7 pages
Conference paper
English
Fans , Coolants , Heat exchangers , Spacecraft , Hardware , Pumps
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