XploSafe wins $100K NASA Phase I SBIR Contract
- XploSafe
- August 9, 2022
- Topics: carbon dioxide, CO2, filter, Nanomaterial, NASA
XploSafe Wins $100K NASA Phase I SBIR Contract
Project Title – Nanoporous Materials to Provide CO2 and Humidity Control for the xEMU with Minimal Power Requirements and Low Volume and Mass
Stillwater, OK – 09 August 2022 – NASA’s Artemis missions are poised to take the next grand step in the advancement of space exploration by sending humans to the Moon and beyond. Success in this endeavor is predicated upon the adoption of new technologies related to air revitalization systems which perform such vital roles as carbon dioxide removal from the cabin atmosphere and subsequent oxygen recovery. The development is underway for the next generation of spacesuit called the Extra-Vehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU).
XploSafe today has announced a $100,000 Phase I SBIR research award through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in which they aim to replace the current CO2-removal medias with a proprietary sorbent with superior stability, higher capacities for water and carbon dioxide, and faster kinetics for uptake and release than the current commercial options. These improvements shall facilitate reduction in power draw, overall size, and mass while maintaining the current CO2 and humidity removal capacity while also minimizing or eliminating requirements for astronaut maintenance while in space. The core XploSafe technology utilized in the endeavor has already proven very successful as a vacuum regenerable sorbent for removing VOCs from breathing air, leading to a Phase II SBIR Research Contract for the XploSafe team funded by NASA out of Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX.
Michael Teicheira (XploSafe’s Operations Manager) had this to say “We are aiming for higher sorption capacities for carbon dioxide and moisture with possibly faster sorption rates. These abilities could lead to significantly reduced weight and size requirements while providing a longer overall service life; all of which are major priorities for the NASA design teams.”
The core technology has several space and terrestrial applications ranging from scrubbers on the space station and space vehicles to filters that shall be useful in HVAC applications such as those used in clean rooms, labs, industrial manufacturers, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and even submarines.
XploSafe, based in Stillwater, Oklahoma is a provider of critical safety solutions for homeland security and chemical safety. Their XploSens explosives detection, XPell peroxide safety products, and XCel+ chemical vapor sampling badges are used by first responders, industrial safety officers, threat assessment officials, and laboratory and chemical manufacturing personnel all over the world. The company holds multiple patents for vapor nanoconfinement technology that facilitates high-capacity absorption, stabilization, and consistent recovery (removal) of a wide range of volatile, semi-volatile, and even reactive organic compounds.
For questions, please contact Shoaib Shaikh, Co-Founder and CEO, at Shoaib@XploSafe.com.
