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2\21 Japan - NASDA Report No 127 - 2003 JAN
Part 2 of 3

Tokyo/Japan

Space agency leaders from the United States, Europe, Canada, Japan and 
Russia met today in Tokyo, Japan, to review and further promote
International Space Station (ISS) cooperation. 

The meeting participants reviewed in detail the significant progress
that has been made in the development and deployment of the ISS
elements and in the implementation of the ISS Program Action Plan
adopted at the last Heads of Agency meeting in June 2002. This Plan
provided the framework for the Partnership efforts over the last six
months to select an option path to meet the utilization and resource
requirements of the ISS. 

At this meeting, the participants unanimously endorsed an option path
that enables maximized ISS utilization in the 2006/2007 timeframe
through greater use of ISS research elements. The implementation of an 
expanded scientific program on ISS would be supported by phased growth 
of ISS capabilities, significantly increased quantity of permanent 
crew, with crew rescue initially provided by additional Soyuz crew 
rescue vehicles and eventually by both Soyuz and Orbital Space Plane. 
Additional Space shuttle, and other vehicle support would also enhance 
this unique on-orbit research facility. 

The participants also agreed upon a process for selecting an ISS
configuration beyond the accommodation of the remaining International
Partner elements. This process includes further technical and
programmatic assessment, cost estimation, and internal budgetary
reviews by each partner. It will lead to approval of a configuration
option recommendation in March 2003, the selection of a revised ISS
configuration option by June/July 2003, and agreement on a
configuration by December 2003. 

The Partners noted with great enthusiasm the continuing success of ISS 
assembly activities and confirmed that development of the remaining 
ISS elements is proceeding as planned. They look forward to successful 
accommodation of key ISS partner elements by February 2004 that will 
allow the accommodation of remaining partner ISS utilization and 
infrastructure elements. This will enable improved scientific and 
technological capabilities in the 2006/2007 timeframe. 

They also highlighted the third year of permanent human presence and
research on board the ISS and the recent successful launch of the ISS
Expedition Six crew. This crew will concentrate on assembly tasks and
the conduct of essential scientific research on behalf of all of the
ISS Partners to improve life on Earth while exploring the frontier of
space. The Partners look forward to increasing tangible benefits of
this unprecedented international cooperation as the Partnership
proceeds with assembly, and increased utilization of, this world-class 
research facility.


Manned Spacecraft Requires Utmost Safest
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Kibo(JEM), the first manned spacecraft ever to be produced in Japan,
requires different "safety standards" from the unmanned spacecraft.
In this issue of Front Line of Advanced and Common Technology
Research, let us describe the research for monitoring the toxic gas in 
the spacecraft, as one of many researches conducted to satisfy these 
standard. 


Three Areas of Safety Studies
-----------------------------
The equipments and materials used in the Space Station's Japanese
Experiment Module, Kibo, must be selected carefully to insure the
safety of its crewmembers. 

NASDA's Human Flight Safety Research is aimed at:

(1) Establishing the more appropriate methods of evaluation for
current test conditions and standards of materials selection; 

(2) Collecting and evaluating the data useful for the safety
improvements of manned space missions, as well as implementing the
result of such effort; and 

(3) Conducting the research and development of necessary technologies
for the safety improvement of manned missions. 

Along these objectives, the following three studies have been
conducted.

(1) Research on off-gas monitoring technique

The research on the off-gas monitoring technique has been conducted
since 1999. It is aimed at developing the monitoring system that can
detect the unexpected occurrences of toxic gas and the abnormal
heating event, such as fire, in the early stage, in order to ensure
the safety of the crewmembers in the pressurized module. 

(2) Research on fire safety

Research on the fire safety has been conducted through micro-gravity
flammability test. It is aimed at understanding the fire resistance
and safety of parts and materials, and to utilize this knowledge for
the improvement of fire safety design of manned spacecrafts. (See
NASDA REPORT, April, 1996 issue, for the micro-gravity environment
combustion test) 

(3) Research on welding technology in the micro-gravity environment

This research is aimed to benefit the on-orbit repair of the pipelines 
and debris bumpers of spacecraft, as well as the replacement and the 
assembly of equipments. 


Earlier Detection and Warning of Generated Gas
----------------------------------------------
Among these three research areas, let us focus on the research on
off-gas monitoring technique in this month's article.

To ensure the crewmembers' safety, the materials and equipments used
for manned spacecraft such as "Kibo" are required to go through a
series of safety verification tests (off-gas test, the odor test, and
the flammability test). These tests help us select the materials that
do not generate hazardous off gas around the maximum touch temperature 
(49oC) of astronauts, or that are self extinguishing. 

Although the probability of the occurrence of fire or localized
abnormal high temperatures is very low, it is not completely zero.
Therefore, we have studied the relationship between heating
temperatures and off-gas products for more than ten materials proposed 
for Kibo Pressurized Module. 

The result of the study indicated that a few highly toxic compounds,
among several tens of types of compounds generated, influence the
toxicity of all the gas generated. Therefore, we concluded that some
measures must be taken to ensure the safety of crewmembers as soon as
such toxic compounds are generated, and started the research on
off-gas monitoring device in 1999. The monitoring device is designed
to detect and warn about the generation of highly toxic off-gas in the 
early stages.


Sensor Tested in Microgravity Environment
-----------------------------------------
First, we selected the highly toxic gases that must be monitored.
Then, we developed the technique required to utilize the appropriate
commercial gas sensors in space, including the technologies for
adopting the sensors to severe space environment, such as
micro-gravity condition, vibration generated at launch, and space
radiation. Commercial gas sensors were used to save time and money
required to develop space-qualified sensors from scratch. 

(continued)

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