This project proposes a radical new approach toward the design and utilization of ionic liquids (ILs) and supported liquid membrane (SLM) architecture to enable a transformational improvement in the reliability and efficiency of spacecraft Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) CO2 removal subsystems. The work proposed herein focuses on the development and refinement of the physical adsorption/desorption mechanisms of IL CO2 removal, and a novel method of augmenting those mechanistic limitations through magnetocaloric pumping-forced convection. By developing technology based on the physisorption and reversible processes of CO2 adsorption in ILs and not chemisorption methods, there is an increased probability of enabling a CO2 removal technology with minimal component degradation pathways and designing a highly reliable Atmosphere Revitalization System (ARS) with a non-volatile, non-consumable and renewable sorbent system.

This work will improve upon current state-of-the-art entry guidance methods by developing algorithms that can: Reason about full 6-DOF flight dynamics Generalize to any entry vehicle configuration Rigorously account for uncertainties and disturbances Provide closed-loop performance guarantees Have minimal online computational requirements