NASA Plans Test of 'Electronic Nose' on International Space Station

Rhea Borja
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-0850
Rhea.R.Borja@jpl.nasa.gov
Grey Hautaluoma/Ashley Edwards
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668/1756
grey.hautaluoma-1@nasa.gov
ashley.edwards-1@nasa.gov
News release : 2008-218 November 19, 2008

NASA Plans Test of 'Electronic Nose' on International Space Station
PASADENA, Calif. – NASA astronauts on Space Shuttle Endeavour's STS-126 mission
will install an instrument on the International Space Station that can "smell" dangerous
chemicals in the air. Designed to help protect crew members' health and safety, the
experimental "ENose" will monitor the space station's environment for chemicals such
as ammonia, mercury, methanol and formaldehyde.

The ENose fills the long-standing gap between onboard alarms and complex analytical
instruments. Air-quality problems have occurred on the International Space Station,
space shuttle and Russian Space Station Mir. In most cases, the chemicals were
identified only after the crew had been exposed to them, if at all. The ENose, which will
run continuously and autonomously, is the first instrument on station that will detect and
quantify chemical leaks or spills as they happen.

"The ENose is a 'first-responder' that will alert crew members of possible contaminants
in the air and also analyze and quantify targeted changes in cabin environment," said
Margaret A. Ryan, the principal investigator of the ENose project at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL, in Pasadena, Calif. JPL built and manages the device.
Station crew members will unpack the ENose on Dec. 9 to begin the instrument's six-
month demonstration in the crew cabin. If the experiment is successful, the ENose
might be used in future space missions as part of an automated system to monitor and
control astronauts' in-space environments.

"This ENose is a very capable instrument that will increase crew awareness of the state
of their air quality," said Carl Walz, an International Space Station astronaut and
Director for NASA's Advanced Capabilities Division, which funds the ENose. "Having
experienced an air-quality event during my Expedition 4 mission on the space station, I
wish I had the information that this ENose will provide future crews. This technology
demonstration will provide important information for environmental control and life-
support system designers for the future lunar outpost."

Specifically, the shoebox-sized ENose contains an array of 32 sensors that can identify
and quantify several organic and inorganic chemical species, including organic solvents
and marker chemicals that signal the start of electrical fires. The ENose sensors are
polymer films that change their electrical conductivity in response to different chemicals.
The pattern of the sensor array's response depends on the particular chemical types
present in the air.

The instrument can analyze volatile aerosols and vapors, help monitor the cleanup of
chemical spills or leaks, and enable more intensive chemical analysis by collecting raw
data and streaming it to a computer at JPL's ENose laboratory. The instrument has a
wide range of chemical sensitivity, from fractional parts per million to 10,000 parts per
million. For all of its capabilities, the ENose weighs less than nine pounds and requires
only 20 watts of power.

The ENose is now in its third generation. The first ENose was tested during a six-day
demonstration on the STS-95 shuttle mission in 1998. That prototype could detect 10
compounds but could not analyze data immediately. The second-generation ENose
could detect, identify and quantify 21 chemical species. It was extensively ground-
tested. The third-generation ENose includes data-analysis software to identify and
quantify the release of chemicals within 40 minutes of detection. While it will look for 10
chemical species in this six-month experiment, the new ENose can be trained to detect
many others.

For more information about the ENose and the Advanced Environmental Monitoring and
Control Project, visit: http://aemc.jpl.nasa.gov/instruments/enose.cfm
For more information about NASA's exploration program, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration
For more information about the International Space Station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station

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