A portable FTIR gas analyser from Gasmet was used in 2014 as part of a specialist space sector project to understand the potential issues facing any manned missions to Mars – perhaps demonstrating an exciting future application in gas analysis and control.
As part of a project to measure the effects of long-term isolation on astronauts, small groups of individuals were selected to live in a tiny ‘Habitat’ perched on the upper slope of a volcano in Hawaii. In doing so, the project team contributed to the understanding of issues that would confront a manned mission to Mars.
As part of the project’s research, NASA’s Anne Caraccio studied off-gases from the crew’s trash with a portable Gasmet FTIR gas analyser. The work was undertaken during the second of four HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analogue and Simulation) missions which involved living with five other crew members for a period of 120 days, in a two-story solar-powered dome just 11m in diameter and with a small attached workshop the size of a shipping container.
