Membrane-Based Water Evaporator for a Space Suit

Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas

Tuesday, June 01 2004

This design incorporates recent advances in hydrophobic micropore membranes.

A membrane-based water evaporator has been developed that is intended to serve as a heat-rejection device for a space suit. This evaporator would replace the current sublimator that is sensitive to contamination of its feedwater. The design of the membrane-based evaporator takes advantage of recent advances in hydrophobic micropore membranes to provide robust heat rejection with much less sensitivity to contamination. The low contamination sensitivity allows use of the heat transport loop as feedwater, eliminating the need for the separate feedwater system used for the sublimator.

A cross section of the evaporator is shown in the accompanying figure. The space-suit cooling loop water flows into a distribution plenum, through a narrow annulus lined on both sides with a hydrophobic membrane, into an exit plenum, and returns to the space suit. Two perforated metal tubes encase the membranes and provide structural strength. Evaporation at the membrane inner surface dissipates the waste heat from the space suit. The water vapor passes through the membrane, into a steam duct and is vented to the vacuum environment through a back-pressure valve. The back-pressure setting can be adjusted to regulate the heat-rejection rate and the water outlet temperature.

This work was done by Eugene K. Ungar and Charles J. McCann of Johnson Space Center and Mary K. O’Connell and Scott Andrea of Lockheed Martin Corp. For further information, contact the Johnson Commercial Technology Office at (281) 483-3809. MSC-23317.