Abstract
Launched to the International Space Station with STS 118 on August 9th 2007, the air quality monitor ANITA (Analysing Interferometer for Ambient Air) has been successfully put into operation on Sept 23rd, 2007. ANITA is a technology demonstrator flight experiment being able to continuously monitor with high time resolution the air conditions within the crewed cabins of the ISS. The system has its origin in a long term ESA technology development programme. The ANITA mission itself is an ESA-NASA cooperative project, where ESA is responsible for the provision of the HW, the data acquisition, and data evaluation. NASA’s responsibilities are launch, accommodation in the US Lab Destiny, operation, and data download. ANITA has been calibrated to detect and quantify simultaneously and quasi on-line over 30 of the most important trace gases in a crewed space cabin. The optimised instrument in combination with sophisticated analysis SW - based on advanced simulations and statistical regression techniques – forms a reliable and compact multi-gas air monitor. Beside continuous measurements in the vicinity of the gas monitor, a special gas-bag-pump unit allows for gas analyses from any module of the Space Station by the simple transport of remotely sampled gas bags back to the measurement unit. On Aug 18th 2008 – after 11 months of successful operation – ANITA has been shut off and stowed. Its return to earth is planned with one of the next shuttle missions.
