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46th International Conference on Environmental Systems ICES-2016-203 10-14 July 2016, Vienna, Austria
Functionality and setup of the algae based ISS experiment
PBR@LSR
Jens Bretschneider1, Stefan Belz2, Harald Helisch3, Gisela Detrell4, Jochen Keppler5, Stefanos Fasoulas6
University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany, DE70569
Norbert Henn7
German Aerospace Center (DLR), Bonn, Germany, DE53227
and
Peter Kern8
Airbus Defense and Space, Immenstaad, Germany, DE88090
Hybrid life support systems combining physicochemical and biological algae based
subsystems are in great interest for the midterm future of manned spaceflight e.g. extensive
ground missions on Moon and Mars. Whereas many possible systems have been theorized
and tested in laboratory conditions, no experiments on realistic system level have been
performed in space. The DLR technology experiment PBR@LSR (Photobioreactor at the
Life Support Rack, former name PBR@ACLS) is set to give a first technology and
performance demonstration on board the ISS in the Destiny module in 2018 by combining
an algae based photobioreactor with the carbon dioxide concentrator of ESA’s Advanced
Closed Loop System built by Airbus DS. This paper shows the design process of the ongoing
flight hardware development. The prototype design is detailed in conjunction with the
operational requirements, safety aspects and scientific needs. The connection to the carbon
dioxide concentrator enables the use of carbon dioxide from the cabin. The algae medium
loop consists of different components of specific functionalities (pumping, illumination,
nutrient supply, temperature control, etc.) to allow cultivation of the microalgae Chlorella
vulgaris. The progress of ground experiments is presented and the derived decisions for the
system design and setting parameters are explained. The paper concludes with an overview
of reached and open milestones to the flight design of PBR@LSR.
Nomenclature
DS = dry substance
PBR = photobioreactor
ECLSS = environmental control and life support system
p/c = physico-chemical
PPFD = photosynthetically active photon flux density
OD = optical density
µg = microgravity
1 PhD candidate, Institute of Space Systems, Pfaffenwaldring 29, 70569 Stuttgart, [email protected] 2 Head of working group, Institute of Space Systems, Pfaffenwaldring 29, 70569 Stuttgart, [email protected] 3 PhD candidate, Institute of Space Systems, Paffenwaldring 29, 70569 Stuttgart, [email protected] 4 Postdoc, Institute of Space Systems, Paffenwaldring 29, 70569 Stuttgart, [email protected] 5 PhD candidate, Institute of Space Systems, Paffenwaldring 29, 70569 Stuttgart, [email protected] 6 Head of Department, Institute of Space Systems, Pfaffenwaldring 29, 70569 Stuttgart, [email protected] 7 Space science engineer, Space Administration, Königswinterer Str. 522-524, 53227 Bonn, [email protected] 8 Senior expert life sciences, Claude-Dornier-Strasse, 88090 Immenstaad, [email protected]
International Conference on Environmental Systems
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I. Introduction
With the renewed interest in extending the capabilities of manned space flight beyond low earth orbit in the
coming decades, advances in many areas of space flight are required. The ECLSS is one of the subsystems requiring
the most improvements compared to current technology in use on board the ISS, if we want to achieve long-time,
long-distance, and safe missions. The main driver for all developments of the ECLSS are crew healthiness in
general, system reliability, operational robustness or the increased closure of material cycles and thus the decreased
need for resupply. Improvements in physio-chemical (p/c) ECLSS-technologies are an important part of this
development. With the high percentage of loop-closure for water and oxygen, p/c-systems are able to cover the bulk
of resupply need. However, only biological systems are able to achieve the last few, important percent of loop
closure by also recycling carbons, nitrates, phosphates, and organic compounds.
As on Earth, many species are candidates for biological components in an ECLSS. Vascular plants and
especially edible plants, e.g. crops, potatoes, salad and tomatoes, are the most common plants regarded for
utilization in manned space travel based on publications in the last decade. Algae and cyanobacteria species have
been considered as suitable alternatives since the early 1960s, also being used in ESA’s MELISSA pilot plant1. At
the Institute of Space Systems in Stuttgart, research on algae-based ECLSS has been performed since the early
2000s. Results so far have shown comprehensively, how algae systems perform in laboratories, how such systems
can be optimized, how algae-based ECLSS compare to systems based on vascular plants, and in which scenarios
biological systems theoretically are more efficient2-4. In addition, some experiments on actual algae cultures under
microgravity (µg) conditions were done on board the ISS5-7. However, an actual demonstration of a large-scale,
biological ECLSS component in µg conditions is still
missing.
The experiment PBR@LSR targets this gap by
providing applied research on a complementary
biological life support element on board the ISS
during up to 6 months. An alga reactor represents the
biological component of the system. The experiment
is connected to the Advanced Closed Loop System
(ACLS) (see Figure 1), which itself is currently under
development at Airbus DS and planned for launch
onto the ISS in late 2017 to early 2018. PBR@LSR is
targeted to launch after the commissioning period of
ACLS in 2018 and installation is currently planned in
the destiny module. PBR@LSR shall demonstrate the
standalone performance of a PBR with the species
Chlorella vulgaris as component of a hybrid ECLSS.
Therefore, this technology verification experiment focuses on measuring the CO2 consumption, O2 production, and
biomass production of the algae over extended periods in the context of actual system boundaries and conditions on
board the ISS. With this data, it will be possible for the first time to evaluate performance over time, system
stability, reliability, and biological stability of a biological ECLSS.
This paper addresses some of the engineering challenges that have been studied during prototype design, ground
testing of the prototype, and flight design of the experiment hardware. After an initial overview of the experiment
hardware and a summary of the experiment methods, section IV highlights the design for the main subsystems and
testing of these subsystems. Lastly, exemplary data from on-ground operation of the complete experiment are
presented. This paper is accompanied by a second paper presented at ICES 2016, which focuses on the biological
experimentation done for PBR@LSR8.
II. General System Design
The flight design of the technology demonstration experiment PBR@LSR is currently in active development and
optimization. So far, prototypes have been designed and built to perform a number of biological and engineering
tests. The general setup of both the flight design and the prototypes is shown in Figure 2.
The central component of the reactor is the algae loop. A pump driven loop circulates algae-medium-solution
constantly through reactor chambers, tubing, sensors for pH and optical density, and a flow indicator. The loop is a
single containment for liquids. This setup is placed in a gas-tight experiment compartment. Semi-permeable
membranes realize gas exchange between the algae loop and the experiment compartment. Multiple sensors for gas
Figure 1. Photobioreactor in context of the existing
ACLS consumables flows.
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composition, pressure, and temperature are placed inside the gas compartment. Fans constantly circulate the gas
inside the compartment. Temperature regulation is ensured by heat exchangers and an external water-cooling loop.
Gas exchange with the environment is realized by multiple ways. Either intake gas is delivered either by ACLS or,
in case ACLS is non-operational, by a backup CO2 supply. If required, the compartment can additionally be vented
with cabin air. LEDs inside the experiment compartment provide lighting for the algae. Gas removal is done either
by an O2 absorber or by venting accumulated gas to the cabin.
When algae grow in the loop, the cell density increases, making it necessary to remove algae material from the
Figure 2. Schematic Setup of experiment PBR@LSR
Figure 3. Prototype setups for PBR@LSR. Left: early prototype; right: current prototype with flight design
dimension.
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experiment and to replace the algae-medium-solution with new nutrients and water at the same time. This exchange
can be scheduled periodically. Automation of this operation is not foreseen in this experiment. Instead, a support
equipment has been designed to have this performed by crewmembers during short periodical tasks. As the growth
rate of algae depends on many variables8, several control loops are used to control the development of the algae
culture inside the experiment preemptively.
The experiment will be accomodated into a standard mid-deck locker and is rack-mounted. The experiment
houses about 1 L of algae culture in two reactors. This volume can be scaled by adding more reactors and is only
limited by the capabilities of the pump. About 9 L of gas volume are contained in the experiment compartment.
Figure 3 shows the progression the system design took throughout different prototype stages. The earlier designs
were much bigger than the described values, which provided higher flexibility in the setup. In contrast, the current
prototyped design represents the flight design dimensions, but also requires specifically sourced components.
III. Experiment Methods
A. Cultivation parameters and culture preparations
The experiments performed for PBR@LSR are performed with Chlorella vulgaris strain SAG 211-12 obtained
2005 from the Culture Collection of Algae Goettingen. The culture has since been cultivated in the Institute of Space
Systems facilities in Stuttgart, mostly in flat-panel-airlift-reactors provided by Subitec and partly in smaller, in-house
flat-plate reactors. The culture is nonaxenic, but is free of other alga strains or any major contaminants. Inoculums
for the prototype experiments described in this paper are taken from these long time cultures during exponential
growth phase of the culture. Preparation for inoculation in the experiment include dilution with growth media to the
desired initial biomass concentration of experiments, visual inspection and measures for homogenization of the
inoculum. The growth media is a diluted seawater nitrogen medium at pH 7. Macronutrients are used as phosphate
and nitrogen source and the concentrations are regularly monitored and adjusted for NH4+ at 100 - 500 mg/L and for
PO43- at 50 - 200 mg/L. The cultivation is performed at 25 - 29°C.8
B. Optical density and biomass concentration
The optical density (OD) is one of the major quantitative measurements used to determine the condition and
development of an algae culture. For a high density culture like the ones used in these experiments, direct
measurement is not possible as OD measurement is only defined for clear liquids with reliable results in a range of
OD = 0 - 1. High concentrated samples are diluted with de-ionized water at 1:10 or 1:100 and the derived, measured
values are multiplied by this factor again to reach the high, virtual ODs above 5. The optical density can be
measured at different wavelengths. For liquids containing chlorophyll, particularly light at λ = 680 nm or λ = 750
nm is used9. For values in this paper, indices indicated the used wavelength. OD values have been determined with a
Hach DR 2800 spectrophotometer.
Closely correlated with the optical density is the biomass dry substance (DS) of the alga-suspension. This
parameter is of actual interest for later applications. However, as it is more laborious to measure then the OD, the
OD and dry-biomass concentration of our culture have been correlated over multiple months and a wide range of
densities, allowing an indirect measure of the DS through the OD. For dry-mass determination, cellular material was
dried at 105 °C for 24 h and the dry mass was weighted. Eq. 1 and 2 present the correlation for both OD750 and
OD680 with a coefficient of determination R² = 0,986.
DS = 0.2886 [g/L] x OD750 (1)
DS = 0.2312 [g/L] x OD680 (2)
C. Culture vitality
The health status of an algae culture is usually determined by macroscopic factors. Suspension color, smell, dry
weight and gas turnover rates are often good indicators for status of a culture and the imminent future development.
However, these indicators are unsuitable for the detection of sudden changes in the status of the culture and
problematic signs can take multiple days to show up in macroscopic behavior until it is too late for counter
measures. The easiest way to circumvent this delay is a microscopic inspection of the culture. At magnifications of
400 to 1000, single cell morphology can be monitored. As many problems do not involve morphologic changes, an
additional colorization was used to monitor culture health.
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Cellular staining during ground tests was performed by using Eosin Y disodium salt solution (10 mg/ml)10. Eosin
Y is able to penetrate the porous cytoplasm membranes of damaged or dead cells. The intracellular machinery of
dead cells is not able to degrade or remove the dye resulting in a selective red staining. Living cells remain unstained
or green. Before counting, cells were diluted to a standardized concentration of DS = 0.3 g/L. Total cell counts
(TCC) as well as living cell counts (LCC) were determined by using a Thoma hemocytometer. The vitality ratio is
calculated according to Eq. 3.
Vitality = LCC / TCC (3)
IV. Subsystem Design and Testing
A. Reactor chamber
The reactor chamber forms the core of the experiment setup. It combines the algae culture, lighting, gas transfer
and active mixing into one component. A wide range of reactor designs has been developed over the years for on
ground operations. Simple and cheap designs as open-pond-reactors or raceway-ponds are used widely in farms.
More advanced designs like pipe-reactors and flat-panel-airlifts are in active development and achieve significantly
higher cultivation efficiencies11. All of these designs have major problems with combinations of operational safety,
biohazard, contamination control, automation, gravity dependency, scalability, and cost when transferred into
microgravity. The Institute of Space Systems has researched many designs for a µg-compatible reactor design over
the last years3, 4 and uses a meandering, flat-bed reactor developed by Airbus DS for other cell cultivation
applications.
Figure 4 and Figure 5 show the reactor design for PBR@LSR. Each reactor is a sandwich of a reactor core, a
semi-permeable membrane, membrane holders and LED panels. The reactor is based on a pipe-reactor design as the
alga-suspension is pumped through an extensive, narrow, meandering path and looped constantly. Commonly, the
problem pipe reactors face is the constant enrichment of the suspension with O2, which is produced by the algae and
can not escape the loop until dedicated gas exchangers are reached, leading to an oversaturation of the liquid loop
with O2 and creating a less favorable, bi-phasic environment for the alga. The chosen design eliminates this
problem. Large parts of the reactors surface a covered by membranes which allows a constant removal of produced
O2 and resupply with CO2 as long a partial pressure difference is maintained between the inside of the reactor loop
and the gas volume of the experiment. The selected membrane shows a negligible water loss . The membrane
surfaces are are optically transparent, with a
transmission of >98% in the illumination spectrum.
A major challenge with the reactor is the
formation of biofilms and general adhesion of cells on
the walls of the reactor. The formation of visible
layers is critical for two reasons. First, cells that are
adhered to the reactor are not circulated in the loop
anymore. This is not a problem for the supply of
nutrients and gases to these cells, but it is for
measuring optical density and biomass. The derived
calculations for turnover and the operational decisions
on harvesting algae from the loop are negatively
impacted by these immobile cells. Secondly, adhering
is observed most intense towards light sources. The
forming films block light from entering into bulk of
the culture and overexpose the immobile cells. These
sticking effects are hard to counter reliably. Tests on
mechanical removal of the films by continuous
shacking, scraping with added particles in the algae
suspension and polishing of surface areas were not
successful. A great reduction of adhering cells was
observable when the level of provided light is finely
tuned to the current optical density. Nearly no biofilm
was observable for a culture at DS = 2 – 3 g/L and a
photosynthetically active photon flux density of
PPFD=300 µmol/m²s. Even if biofilm can not be
Figure 4. Design of reactor chamber in cross-section.
Figure 5. Design of reactor chamber in frontal view.
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avoided completely, the constant pumping of the
culture ensures a homogenization of parameters
in most regards. The constant flow equalizes
inconsistencies in cell density, lighting intensity,
temperature distribution, dissolved gas
concentrations and gas transfer.
B. Pump and liquid loop
A pump is required to drive the alga medium
loop. Any pump introduces mechanical stress
onto the alga cells by either shear forces,
pressure swings or vibrations. Damaging effects
of these mechanical stresses on algae as
Chlorella vulgaris are well documented12, 13. For
initial testing, multiple pumps representing
different concepts were chosen. A Watson-
Marlow peristaltic pump has been tested and was
previously used for short-duration pumping of
algae cells without noticeable, negative effects.
Further, a membrane pump by KNF was tested
because one of its advertised use-cases is the
damage-free pumping of human blood cells.
Lastly, a gear pump from Ullermann KFT was
tested.
All three pumps were investigated with a
fixed test setup. A suspension of algae cells and
nutrient solution with a fixed starting optical
density is circulated in a small sample loop of 10
ml for up to 54 h, equivalent to a comparable
amount of passes of each alga cell through the
pump in the actual 6 months PBR@LSR
experiment. Over the run time of the experiment,
small samples have been taken from the loop and
analyzed for their cell vitality with Eosin-Y. This
vitality is normalized to the vitality of alga cells
in an identical setup without a pump, leaving
only the damaging influence of the pumps as
variable. The progression of vitality over time at
a fixed pump speed of 45 ml/min for all three
pumps is shown in Figure 6. It is prominent that
the peristaltic pump performs superior in
comparison to the other two concepts.
Especially, the gear pump shows a very weak
performance. The gear pump leaves many cells
with destroyed cell wall as shown in Figure
9Figure 8 and is therefore completely inadequate
for usage with Chlorella vulgaris.
The peristaltic pump performed best overall,
was chosen for implementation in PBR@LSR
and performed an additional test. The described
test was repeated for different pump speeds.
Results for the correlation between cell vitality
and pump speed are shown in Figure 8. The
pump speed range for PBR@LSR was limited to
Figure 8. Remaining vitality of sample cultures (10 ml)
with peristaltic pumps at varying speeds.14
Figure 9. Microscopic view of culture after pumping with
gear pump (54 hours at 45 ml/min) and staining with
Eosin-Y.14
vital cell
non-vital,
intact cell
Figure 6. Remaining vitality of sample cultures (10 ml)
with pumps running at 45 ml/min.14
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50 – 200 ml/min to avoid the increased cell degradation seen above 200 ml/min.
Additionally to the pump selection, the tubing, connectors and the meanders in the reactor chamber are sized to
ensure a laminar flow throughout the complete loop, greatly reducing mechanical stress on the alga cells. A
maximum Reynolds-Number Re = 400 is reached, staying clearly below the laminar cut off at Re < 2300.14
C. LED
Light drives the photosynthesis process performed by the algae in the reactor and is one of the limiting factors
for biological life support system performance. In comparison to higher plants, algae are more flexible regarding
their lighting source. A dedicated day-night-cycle is not required and the culture can be operated in a near steady
state. Still, an oversaturation with photons must be avoided as photo-oxidation can occur at high light intensities15.
As with higher plants, chlorophyll is the chemical component allowing for conversion between light energy and
chemical energy16. Chlorophyll a and b are the major chlorophyll components in Chlorella vulgaris, which is
reflected in the alga’s absorption spectrum. Absorption peaks occur at about 435 nm, 475 nm, and 676 nm in the
blue and red range of light. The exact spectra can vary noticeably by strain and the culture is additionally able to
adapt its ratio of Chlorophyll a to b based on the used lighting source17. The absorption spectrum shown in Figure 10
is data from the culture in Stuttgart, based on Chlorella vulgaris strain SAG-211-12 after multiple years of
cultivation. The spectrum is consistent with other publications18.
Extensive research on different light
setups for algae including Chlorella
vulgaris has been done19-21. Derived from
this work, two LED-based light setups
were tested for PBR@LSR. In multiple
tests, white lighting and red-blue lighting
was compared. The respective spectra of
these LED are also shown in Figure 10.
Main driver for the decision between
these two implementation were the power
consumption at give photosynthetically
active photon flux density (PPFD) and
growth experiments performed with
Chlorella vulgaris. The growth charts of
multiple cultures under varying lighting
conditions are shown in Figure 11. Growth
of algae cells was demonstrated with both
light setups with no significant differences
in growth speed. Both lighting experiments
were performed at an initial PPFD of 100
µmol/m²s, which was increased to
150 µmol/m²s after DS = 1.15 g/L was
reached to compensate for the higher
absorption potential of a denser alga
culture. At PPFD = 150 µmol/m²s, the
lighting for 4 panels of 200 mm x 200 mm
each require 11 W power for white lighting
and 10 W for the red-blue lighting. At
PPFD = 200 µmol/m²s, this raises to
14.8 W and 12 W respectively. Both
lighting solutions are equally suitable for
PBR@LSR. The red-blue combination was
chosen in the end, as it exerts a slightly
lower thermal load and allows for a higher
flexibility during experiments. The red and
blue LEDs are controlled individually,
making the distribution of blue and red light an additional degree of freedom for experiment parameters.22
vital cell
non-vital,
intact cell
Figure 11. Culture growth comparison between white lighting
and red-blue lighting in in-house PBR.22
Figure 10. Absorption spectrum of C. vulgaris (at DS = 1 g/L)
compared to LED-lighting options.22
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D. Gas Handling
Supplying CO2 to the alga cells and removing excess O2 is crucial to ensure continuous operation of the PBR.
This gas exchange challenge requires a solution able to handle the multiphase-flow of liquid and gas under
gravitational loads varying from 1 g during ground tests to µg on ISS. As previously described, the chosen solution
is a semi-permeable membrane.
Figure 12 gives a compact overview of the multiple steps required to use the CO2 from ACLS with the culture
volume and return the O2. In the context of this experiment, produced O2 is vented into the cabin.
Near pure CO2 is supplied by ACLS. PBR@LSR is intended to operate during periods of long continuous
operation of ACLS. In case that the CO2-supply from the ACLS is interrupted, the gas will be taken from an
redundant back-up storage of CO2 will be provided for PBR@LSR to ensure an uninterrupted operation of the
experiment. The gas-control systems
keep the CO2 in the range of 6-10 %vol
CO2 and the O2 concentration at 10-20
%vol.
From the experiment
compartment, the semi-permeable
membrane ensures an exchange with
the dissolved gases inside the reactor
as long as a trans-membrane pressure
difference is maintained. The used
Sarsted membrane was surveyed for
gas transfer capabilities as shown in
Figure 13. The data show that O2
transfer rate is about one magnitude
slower compared to CO2. The
achieved transfer rates are sufficient
for the PBR@LSR concept24.
V. Experiment Performance
during ground testing
Throughout the prototype phase of
PBR@LSR multiple demonstration runs of the complete experiment have been performed. These runs mostly were
aimed at testing of the biological performance of the culture and of different settings or components. Experiment
durations varied between a few days up to 2 months. In summation, the prototypes have cultivated algae for multiple
months. For this paper, one experiment-run demonstrating long time cultivation is shown as example in Figure 15.
Figure 12. Flow chart of gas handling system.
Figure 13. Measured transfer rates for CO2 and O2 through Sarsted
membrane at varying pressure differences.
International Conference on Environmental Systems
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The behavior of gas concentration
during the course of the experiment is
the most important experiment data, in
addition to the optical density and dry
biomass. During the 7 days shown in
Figure 15, the OD750 stayed constant
with additional biomass forming
visible biofilms. The CO2 is actively
regulated between 7 – 9 %vol creating
the typical saw-tooth pattern. The step
drops that are prominent in the O2
curve are indicators for a flushing of
the experiment compartment with N2,
which is necessary when visual
inspections of the reactors are done.
The logarithmical flattening of the O2
curve can be explained by the gas
transfer capabilities of the membrane
as described earlier. Higher O2
concentration in the gas phase cause a
higher dissolved concentration,
negatively affecting the algae cells.
Temperature was kept nearly constant
between 25 – 26°C. From these data,
the overall gas turnover rate of the
experiment can be calculated as shown
in Figure 14. Over seven days, 8.04 L
(14.34 g) of CO2 were consumed
whereas 7.96 L (10.28 g) O2 were
produced. In agreement with these
findings, an uptake of macronutrients
could be measured. Microscopic
inspections of the culture were
performed regularly. At the end of the
experiment, no visual damage of the
algae could be found and bacteria
growth was minimal.
Comparative results were achieved
in a continuous two-month cultivation
run. A maximum dry substance growth
of 0.5 g/L/d was measured. The
respiratory quotient fluctuated between
0.5 and 0.9.
VI. Conclusion and Outlook
The ongoing development of PBR@LSR has reached a point where long-term cultivation for Chlorella vulgaris
can be demonstrated. The technical system is capable of sustaining a healthy culture and experiment parameters can
be adapted for further optimization of system performance. The four central components – the reactor, pump choice,
lighting design, and gas supply approach – have been tested and proven functional in their current implementation.
Multiple prototype setups with different control strategies have been build and operated. Over the course of 16
growth experiments, the combination of reactor design and lighting solution has proven to be especially important
for a successful algae cultivation. The current solution of LED lighting with PPFD < 300 µmol/m²/s combined with
a shallow reactor and a fast, laminar flow of algae-medium-suspension has proven optimal.
The connection between PBR@LSR and ACLS has been simulated, but functionality still needs to be proven
experimentally. For the flight design of the experiment, some additional constraints still have to be investigated
Figure 15. Experiment Data during 7 days of prototype
experiments.
Figure 14. Summation of consumed and produced gas amounts
over 7 days of prototype experiments.
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compared to the current prototype status; e.g. thermal balancing in rack mounted position, vibration resistance and
safety compliance. In addition, experiment runs of up to six months duration are planned to prove the long-term
stability of the setup.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the German Aerospace Center for the financial support in the frame of the
technology experiment development and Airbus Defence and Space for close cooperation and financial support.
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