Humidity Control in Space Suits

The rapid cycle amine system developed by NASA to remove excess humidity from space suits makes the air in the suits uncomfortably dry for astronauts, so the project sponsor asked the team to design a space suit humidity-control system. The team used Paragon’s Nafion bundle technology to control space suit humidity levels. Nafion is a copolymer of tetrafluoroethylene that is semipermeable to water. The design team designed a mathematical model of the system, including various orientations of the Nafion bundles, and determined the best bundle configuration. The team built and tested a prototype in the Paragon lab, which includes a test bed that simulates normal breathing, the Nafion bundle chamber, and a replica of the current rapid cycle amine system.