Modular Container System Preserves Sample Integrity

In the development of this technology for the ISS, engineers had to pay careful attention to electrical draw efficiency, ease-of-use, mass reduction, production cost, and safety, as conducting scientific research under spacecraft stressors is an important requirement. To create a controlled environment within the science enclosure, engineers designed a ventilation system incorporating an external fan/blower that pulls air across a HEPA filter and diffuses it in a manner that creates an even laminar flow within the enclosure before exiting through the exhaust filter. The glove seal forms an airtight and liquid impervious seal. This novel design also allows the user flexibility to choose their own task-specific glove material, facilitates easy tool-free assembly and quick glove changes, and may be transferable to other types of enclosures. Another key feature is that a through-port can be quickly fitted to an empty glove port. Due to the science enclosure system intended application aboard the ISS, its electrical draw does not exceed 24V, thereby making it feasible to power it from a battery for terrestrial field use or other applications where accessing power is a challenge. The combination of its performance, portability, BSL 2 capability, and inexpensive production costs could position the science enclosure system and accompanying innovations to be valuable in the fields of education, research, clean rooms, hospitals, and disaster relief efforts.

Storage and transfer of fluid commodities such as oxygen, hydrogen, natural gas, nitrogen, argon, etc. is an absolute necessity in virtually every industry on Earth. These fluids are typically contained in one of two ways; as low pressure, cryogenic liquids, or as a high pressure gases. Energy storage is not useful unless the energy can be practically obtained ("un-stored") as needed. Here the goal is to store as many fluid molecules as possible in the smallest, lightest weight volume possible; and to supply ("un-store") those molecules on demand as needed in the end-use application. The CFC concept addresses this dual storage/usage problem with an elegant charging/discharging design approach. The CFC's packaging is ingeniously designed, tightly packing aerogel composite materials within a container allows for a greater amount of storage media to be packed densely and strategically. An integrated conductive membrane also acts as a highly effective heat exchanger that easily distributes heat through the entire container to discharge the CFC quickly, it can also be interfaced to a cooling source for convenient system charging; this feature also allows the fluid to easily saturate the container for fast charging. Additionally, the unit can be charged either with cryogenic liquid or from an ambient temperature gas supply, depending on the desired manner of refrigeration. Finally, the heater integration system offers two promising methods, both of which have been fabricated and tested, to evenly distribute heat throughout the entire core, both axially and radially. NASA engineers also applied the CFC to a Cryogenic Oxygen Storage Module to store oxygen in solid-state form and deliver it as a gas to an end-use environmental control and/or life support system. The Module can scrub out nuisance or containment gases such as carbon dioxide and/or water vapor in conjunction with supplying oxygen, forming a synergistic system when used in a closed-loop application. The combination of these capabilities to work simultaneously may allow for reduced system volume, mass, complexity, and cost of a breathing device.

The MOD platform technology represents a small, lightweight, and reproducible in vitro drug screening model that could inexpensively mimic different mammalian tissues for a multitude of applications. The technology is automated and imposes minimal demands for resources (power, analytes, and fluids). The MOD technology uses titanium isopropoxide to bond a microscale support to a substrate and uses biopatterning and 3D tissue bioprinting on a microfluidic microchip to eliminate variations in local seeding density while minimizing selection pressure. With the MOD, pharmaceutical companies can test more candidates and concentrate on those with more promise therefore, reducing R&D overall cost. This innovation overcomes major disadvantages of conventional in vitro and in vivo experimentation for purposes of investigating effects of medicines, toxins, and possibly other foreign substances. For example, the MOD platform technology could host life-like miniature assemblies of human cells and the effects observed in tests performed could potentially be extrapolated more readily to humans than could effects observed in conventional in vivo cell cultures, making it possible to reduce or eliminate experimentation on animals. The automated NASA developed technology with minimal footprint and power requirements, micro-volumes of fluids and waste, high throughput and parallel analyses on the same chip, could advance the research and development for new drugs and materials.

This invention is a system and associated method that is a two step process. It provides a contaminant treatment pouch, referred to as a urine cell or contaminant cell that converts urine or another liquid containing contaminants into a fortified drink, engineered to meet human hydration, electrolyte and caloric requirements. It uses a variant of forward osmosis (FO) to draw water from a urine container into the concentrated fortified drink as part of a recycling stage. An activated carbon pretreatment removes most organic molecules. Salinity of the initial liquid mix (urine plus other) is synergistically used to enhance the precipitation of organic molecules so that activated carbon can remove most of the organics. A functional osmotic bag is then used to remove inorganic contaminants. If a contaminant is processed for which the saline content is different than optimal for precipitating organic molecules, the saline content of the liquid should be adjusted toward the optimal value for that contaminant.

The COSM employs NASA's Cryogenic Flux Capacitor core to store liquid oxygen (at 90 K) in silica aerogel material at ambient pressure, and then discharges cold oxygen gas into an in-line flow loop in response to heat input. If the composition of the incoming effluent stream contains gases with condensation or freezing points above the 90 K oxygen storage temperature--such as carbon dioxide or water vapor--these gasses can be removed from the stream as it moves through the COSM. The current COSM is sized to be wearable on the person but can be easily scaled to much larger sizes and various geometries. COSM is designed with a long "cold path" which provides for greater residence times which increase the probability that condensable/freezable gases will be trapped in the COSM. Also, the longer the cold path, the longer the time a COSM can be used prior to the oxygen being depleted and the scrubbed gasses liberated. Two COSM geometries have been designed, built, and tested-a round spiral and a prismatic serpentine--to achieve long cold paths, and intrinsic vapor cooling to manage heat loads.