Oxygen recovery systems for manned space flight.

T H E PROBLEM of supplying man with his oxygen requirement and uncontaminated air during prolonged confinement is receiving considerable research attention. In particular, the recovery of oxygen using biological specimens as the mechanism for converting carbon dioxide into oxygen plus other materials has been the subject of many papers recently. There can be no doubt concerning the need for a regenerative system that will produce oxygen from man's respiratory wastes for space application. Any cursory examination of the weight involved in storing man's oxygen requirement, whether for long duration space flight or submarine submergence, reveals that after some point in time it becomes economically justifiable as well as operationally important to manufacture this necessary material in situ. Of course, this premise also holds for water and food. Obviously any procedure that will permit the complete regeneration of man's needs from his wastes, resulting in a dosed ecological system, will be most useful for space vehides. However, present technology is limited insofar as means for the manufacture of food are concerned. Water can be recovered successfully, as has been demonstrated in an earlier paper. 13 This paper is concerned with the purification of air and the regeneration of oxygen.