The 4-bed CO2 scrubber at SAM – Assemble

by Griffin Hentzen, ME

We are thrilled to enter the assembly phase of the project! We have all primary components needed to build the assembly, with many system components already mounted on the grid wall. Unlike most spaceflight hardware which is tightly packaged to maximize efficiency, our system has plenty of room. We are opting to make the assembly modular and spread components out as much as needed to make assembly, integration, and testing as easy as possible. This unit will be an experimental unit that we will want to be able to upgrade or alter at any given time.

The large chamber stacks have many different sections. At both ends, they contain diffuser chambers which simply allow the air to transition from a relatively thin tube into the full volume of the chambers. The largest chambers within each chamber stack are the sorbent and desiccant chambers. The sorbent chamber adsorbs CO2, but is sensitive to water vapor; the desiccant chamber adsorb water vapor to allow the sorbent chambers to function properly. The medium-sized middle chamber is a plenum chamber that contains a large check valve, and a side-exit port. The three small chambers are spacer & instrumentation chambers that allow for us to easily plug in power and data lines to components inside the chambers without compromising the seal quality. They are separate chambers to ensure modularity, and give us the flexibility to change around positions in the future.

Also mounted are the blower (blue), the blower controller (black box), and the vacuum pump (silver, white and black), which allows for us to pull a vacuum on the zeolites/sorbent to desorb them of CO2.

There are many more components in the system, including a number of valves, a heat exchanger, high-temperature tubing, and a healthy amount of instrumentation and wiring. So far we have primarily been fit testing and ensuring all components will mount correctly to the 80/20 wall. The mounting structure is designed to allow for maximum modularity and ease of assembly and maintenance compared to a system that is welded together, permanently in place. It allows us to move any given component up/down, left/right, or in/out.