ESA- Project CLAIS
The European Space Agency ESA has commissioned a feasibility study for an innovative air purification system (CLAIS -Clean Air in Space) for space stations.
The contractor is a consortium of 3 partners (Bucher Solutions GmbH, Villinger GmbH and DPU), with DPU being the academic medical partner. The feasibility study will be conducted from March 2023 to September 2023, followed by the manufacturing of a prototype with extensive terrestrial testing if the feasibility study is successful, and then testing in space before the system can be deployed in a space station. The partner for these further phases of CLAIS development will be Airbus Defence & Space in Friedrichshafen, which has already developed and delivered ACLS (Advanced Closed Loop System), an advanced life support system for CO2 air purification and oxygen production for the International Space Station (ISS). The development of the CLAIS air purification system stems from the development successes in the H2020 Clean Air project in which DPU has already played a major role with medical expertise and extensive test series.
CLAIS is designed to significantly reduce viruses and bacteria in the cabin air of space stations, effectively eliminate mold spores, and neutralize bad odors. All these pathogenic particles and other air contaminants are inactivated in CLAIS, resulting in clean, healthy and fragrant cabin air. The background to this development is that in space, people always have to live and work together in a very confined space with limited air volume. A healthy person releases 25,000 to 40,000 germs per hour into the ambient air, depending on the activity, which contributes to a high germ load in the cabin air and greatly increases the risks of contamination and infection. Conventional air filtration systems currently used in space stations have significant disadvantages and problems that the use of CLAIS will avoid, since a cold plasma without generation of ozone is used for air purification instead of a filtration system.