Astronauts will stay in space much longer than before during space missions to Mars, which is why the air quality in spaceships and habitats will be of even greater importance. Therefore, long-term investigations on indoor air quality will be necessary to ensure the astronauts’ health. IAQHabitat is an experiment of the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research, Wilhelm-Klauditz-Institut (WKI), Germany, that aims to assess the relevance of high indoor air quality regarding long-term missions and furthermore will determine to what extent current methods for assessing indoor air quality can be applied to long-term missions. For one week during the Mars simulation AMADEE-24, air samples shall be taken in the habitat and their composition and quality analyzed. Twice a day, gas samples will be collected on absorbent materials, which will then be analyzed at the WKI. The concentration of the colorless gas formaldehyde, which can be irritating to the skin, eyes and respiratory tract, is also monitored online. In addition, the air outside the habitat will also be examined in order to identify possible influences on the indoor air.
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