Living in Space: A Technology for Spacecraft Design (1966)

[Music] it is a long step from the Wright brothers fragile wings of cloth to crafts of metal that outrace the Sun hundreds of miles above the earth this is only the beginning technological advancement gains momentum with every passing day before this century ends we shall see progress in manned space flight that will make present-day ventures primitive by comparison [Music] [Music] there are a great many things we would like to do with man in space however even the most modest of these goals presents us with a tremendous technological challenge particularly in the area of life-support systems prior films in this series explained why we need a regenerative life support system how machines recover oxygen and how they purify wastewater for reuse we examined the many chemical physical and mechanical principles employed in supplying men with oxygen water and food methods for disposing of waste products and demonstrated techniques for personal hygiene in a weightless environment these systems are a distillation of our most advanced scientific thought translated into functioning hardware the beginning of a basic life support technology components in this system may or may not develop into flight hardware designs this will depend on how well they prove out in long-duration manned ground tests the design of an actual spacecraft must be tailored to a specific mission we have to know what the mission will be the size of the crew their destination and the duration of the total operation these and many other factors will affect the spacecraft size weight and the amount of power required even though the types of missions will vary greatly there are conditions and constraints that are common to all men operations the weight we can lift into space is severely limited so the life-support system must be a small lightweight and reliable as we can make it [Music] we must also consider that everything including man must function in zero-gravity weightlessness adds many design problems we have never faced before the problem is complicated by the fact that it is extremely difficult to produce a truly weightless environment on earth parabolic flights in a jet aircraft provide less than a minute of test time for a manoeuvre research scientists have been able to extend test times by developing an underwater technique that in some respects simulates weightlessness another device the free space simulator approximates the difficulties encountered in doing useful work in zero gravity in space it will be virtually impossible to apply a twisting portion or pulling force without something to hang on to our spacecraft designs must reflect an understanding of these problems and provide for them every system in a spacecraft including man either uses or produces heat but more heat is generated than is used the excess heat must be radiated to space the amount to be radiated is constantly changing heat given off by the human body varies with the activity of the individual heat generated by electronic and process equipment fluctuates with the demands placed upon them a spacecraft in Earth orbit may pass in and out of sunlight and earth shadow many times a day exposing the cabin to constantly changing temperature extremes a thermal control system must sense this varying rate of heat generation and adjust the flow of air and fluids to ensure a regulated temperature for example air in a spacecraft is more than a source of oxygen for the crew it circulates in around and through men and machines picking up heat generated in the cabin in a continuous flow it delivers the air to machines and devices which clean purify and cool it one of these is the air conditioner the fluid which circulates through this unit is first chilled in the space radiator it then circulates to various components in the spacecraft picking up heat as it goes chilling water for beverages condensing water in numerous processes cooling and dehumidifying the cabin air cooling equipment and finally giving up its load of heat to space in a spacecraft we will be able to provide only a limited amount of electricity consequently we must design each component to operate on a minimum of electrical power in generating electricity there will be a significant amount of waste heat at a temperature to low to produce electrical power efficiently but it is hot enough to evaporate wastewater and to provide heat to many other life-support processes in this way waste heat becomes useful heat that would otherwise have to be provided by electricity in order to regulate the operation of all systems in a spacecraft we must provide a reliable system of instruments and controls many of the controls will be automatic others will require manual operation status lights will indicate the general operating conditions of all systems this will minimize the amount of attention the crew must devote to monitoring and control in instances where fluctuations of a temperature pressure or process event are critical a warning signal directs the attention of the crew to the trouble spot before it becomes a serious threat to their safety crew safety is all-important the success of a mission is dependent not only on the crew being safe but feeling safe safety must be built into the life-support system critical components will have backup units that can be switched into the line if needed for example in this prototype the water recovery system has two distillation units if one fails the other can maintain the normal supply of drinking water and half of the wash water allowed if both distillation units fail an emergency unit using special filtration techniques will purify exhaled water vapor and perspiration condensed from the cabin air under these conditions the crew will use water for drinking and food preparation only also there will be an additional emergency supply of water the oxygen recovery system has two reactors in case one fails if both reactors fail the poisonous carbon dioxide would be discharged overboard the crew would then draw oxygen from an emergency supply while making repairs in the case of serious atmospheric contamination or loss of pressure within the spacecraft crewmen will get into their pressure suits and connect directly with the spacecraft's atmospheric control system the suits are also equipped with their own cooling system pressure and oxygen supply allowing the crew to work independently of the spacecraft life support system [Music] sustaining man in space for long periods of time presents enormous challenges to present-day technology many scientific and engineering disciplines are employed in making the most efficient use of every bit of energy every cubic inch of space and every ounce of weight it is demanding a degree of reliability unparalleled in engineering experience it is a challenge that accepts only the very best men has to offer in every known scientific discipline only through research with tools such as the regenerative life support system can we develop the technology needed to build the spacecraft which will carry man and his natural environment into the next era of exploration you [Music]