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On Earth, we often take for granted the basic essentials for life---water, food. . . even the air we breathe, because they're all around us.
But, what about living in space? We'll have those same needs. Where will we find them?
A small firm called Paragon Space Development Corporation in Tucson,
Arizona is working with NASA on critical technologies to support human life in space.
And, two of the owners, Taber MacCallum and Jane Poynter, know a lot about living in an enclosed space.
In the early 1990s, their Biosphere 2 experiment laid the groundwork for the critical roles Paragon has in today's NASA missions.
One of the firm's partnerships with NASA is through the Small Business Innovation Research, or SBIR Program.
Through SBIR contracts with Johnson Space Center, Paragon has been developing a number of
different technologies for thermal control and life support systems in extreme environments.
By working with engineers at Johnson, the firm built and tested a unique structural radiator prototype.
Through a SBIR Phase three contract, Paragon is now partnered with Lockheed Martin to transfer
the radiator technology to Orion, NASA's new crew exploration vehicle.
We're taking this spacecraft to the Moon and Mars. Having the radiators also serve the
purpose of structure, thus reducing the weight of the vehicle, was very key to making the whole vehicle successful.
In 1999, Lockheed had included Paragon and other small companies on their team to develop human spacecraft for NASA. And today,
Paragon is also a member of both winning Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, teams.
We've worked with them so we understand how the spacecraft changes as we change life support technologies, and they understand
how with the spacecraft mission changing how that's going to change the life support system.
We called it "the rubber spacecraft model." We could change missions and we could change configurations and understand how
all these subsystems played together rather than being analyzed in isolation.
The firm is also developing an "air revitalization system" for use in space through another SBIR contract.
The system takes the crew's carbon dioxide and then produces all of their oxygen.
Some Paragon's technology development is cross-fertilized between NASA and other federal departments.
For the Navy, they're creating a new diving suit system that would allow divers to enter harsh chemical environments.
We can take that expertise and transfer that to the commercial market, and that benefits NASA as well, because we're working
with both of the COTS teams, and the ability for us to make them more successful allows NASA to be more
successful in working with the COTS teams.
The Navy's dive suit system technology plays right into NASA's Constellation program need for an improved spacesuit.
We're partnering with other companies to develop these new spacesuits, and we're
involved in developing the life support system aspect of the suit.
To support NASA and commercial hardware projects, Paragon recently opened its new
Human-rating Facility for testing Environmental Control and Life Support Systems.
We're now moving into manufacturing spaceflight hardware, and in order
to really do that, we needed the facility, the space for that enterprise.
The chamber that we have developed is very specifically designed for testing spaceflight
hardware and spacesuits in space-like environments.
Many years ago, Paragon's experiments were the first to complete animal lifecycles in
space-from birth, to procreation over multiple generations.
And now, as the firm moves forward with NASA, they plan to support human life in space.