SURGICAL ADVANCEMENTS FOR DEEP SPACE APPLICATIONS (SADSA)

As manned spaceflight ventures beyond low Earth orbit and into deep space, the management of medical emergencies in microgravity takes on critical importance to mission safety. One of these difficulties is the separation of air and blood during surgery for transfusion or storage. Gravity-driven separation systems are used on the Earth to manage blood-air mixtures, but such technologies do not function in microgravity. To address this technological shortfall, the subject of this thesis is the design and development of a collapsible, capillary-based, closed-loop blood-air separator for space use. As an additional component, microgravity suction wands were also tested in 1-G.

The design process of the separator started by investigating a number of collapsible commercial products, such as a whisk, a telescope, and a fan. Each of these products was considered for their ability to effectively collapse and hold a rigid shape when deployed. They were also considered for their lightweight design, which would be preferred in a spacecraft. The separator was created through five design iterations to address key performance issues of structural stability, separation efficiency, and collapsibility. The final design uses capillary action to separate blood from air without relying on gravity, making it possible for safe collection and reuse of blood for transfusion or for environmental control in a space vehicle.

Testing of the closed-loop separator was simulated with realistic blood-air mixtures, but full validation will occur during a 0-G parabolic flight scheduled for May 2025. This test will provide critical data on the separator’s performance in microgravity conditions. By itself, this system forms the foundation for a microgravity surgical solution that can manage fluid f low, prevent cabin contamination, and enable controlled surgical procedures in space.

The final flight model has been created and the initial 1-G results indicate that the separator design meets the functional requirements for emergency medical use in space. Further testing and refinement will be needed to fully optimize the system and visually prove that capillary action will work within the system in microgravity.

This separator design also has the ability to be adapted for other uses such as hydroponics and chemical manufacturing, making it novel foundational research in the field of microgravity fluid separation.