COMEX and the Space Sector: A Historic Collaboration for the Future of Life Support in Extreme Environments

For over 60 years, COMEX has been a key player in exploring and mastering extreme environments, thanks to its unique expertise in life support systems under hypo- and hyperbaric conditions. Today, this experience translates into a fruitful collaboration with the space sector. Partnering with agencies such as CNES, ESA, and NASA, COMEX is contributing to the development of life support technologies for habitats designed for upcoming missions, including lunar exploration in the coming years.

Unparalleled Expertise in Pressure Management

Rooted in decades of research and innovation, COMEX’s expertise in pressure management initially emerged in the context of saturation diving, with landmark projects like HYDRA 9 and HYDRA 10. COMEX divers reached record depths of up to 701 meters at the COMEX Hyperbaric Testing Center (CEH), demonstrating the reliability and safety of its confined environments. These technological advancements now form a cornerstone for research into survival systems in extreme environments, including tests on human endurance and simulations of intra- and extravehicular space activities.

Testing Environments for Future Exploration

Towards Air and Water Self-Sufficiency: COMEX Purification Projects

To support international space ambitions, COMEX has also developed advanced air and water purification systems. These essential technologies for space missions integrate coupled processes (plasma, photocatalysis, and fine particle filtration) to effectively remove chemical and biological pollutants in confined environments. For instance, the EPURA project focuses on sustainable water recycling, a priority for long-duration missions. Simultaneously, the MINERVE project aims to miniaturize purification equipment for use in space, adapting to specific constraints for intravehicular (IVA) activities.

2025: New Test Campaigns for the Space Sectorl

The collaboration between COMEX and the space sector continues to grow to meet the increasing demands of exploration missions. In 2025, specific test campaigns are planned at the CEH, particularly to validate oxygen pre-breathing protocols, essential for preventing decompression accidents during extravehicular (EVA) activities. These tests represent a crucial step before operational implementation, reaffirming COMEX’s role as a leading innovator in ensuring crew safety and well-being in space.

A Vision for Future Space Collaboration

With its historical experience and advanced technical capabilities, COMEX is ready to tackle the challenges of the future. The company continues to position itself as a strategic partner for space agencies by developing life support solutions tailored to the extreme conditions of space. COMEX’s vision for the future is clear: leveraging its expertise in pressure management and purification systems, the company is helping push the boundaries of human exploration beyond our planet.

Development of the V-Care system for autonomous astronaut training.

The MEDES-COMEX consortium has developed on behalf of ESA a new tracking system for the crew’s physical exercises: Visual Controlled Bodytracking for Advanced Resistive Exercise (V-CARE).

Optimizing real-time body movement tracking

Context :

The International Space Station (ISS) plays a crucial role in facilitating in-depth research into the consequences of prolonged exposure to weightlessness on human health. These studies have identified significant issues such as bone deterioration, muscle atrophy, and the decline of cardiovascular function, among other detrimental effects. The need for resistive exercise as a countermeasure to these impacts of microgravity is now well established, thanks to decades of human experience in space. Indeed, scientific publications, such as those in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, have demonstrated the benefits of resistive exercise on bone health.

Therefore, performing physical exercises is essential to maintain optimal physical condition and limit these deconditioning effects. However, when carrying out these exercises, especially when they involve high loads, the risk of injuries, such as muscle pains, cannot be overlooked. A key study published in the Spine Journal in August 2017 notably highlighted the modifications of the spine and muscle atrophy suffered by astronauts, underscoring the importance of a preventative and adaptive approach in the development of physical training programs in space.

Necessity of Innovation in the Space Context:

Currently, once or twice for a 6-month mission (often in the middle of the mission), a real-time teleconference (audio and video) is organized between the astronaut exercising on the ARED (Advanced Resistive Exercise Device) and the team of physical trainers located at a flight control center. The trainers can react in real time when inappropriate positions are observed. This procedure is not sufficient, and it is also restrictive because it requires a real-time connection and does not support the autonomy of the crew, which is an important element to consider. The implementation of a bodytracking system that displays in real time to astronauts when they are exercising at high intensity on ARED is perfectly justified and necessary from a safety perspective. To address this, the idea was to provide ESA with a markerless video capture system of movements allowing self-monitoring (by real-time video feedback) to the subject himself (the astronaut) during resistive exercise on the ISS’s ARED and also compatible with future exercise devices anticipated for upcoming exploration missions.

Presentation of the V-Care System:

To prevent injuries during countermeasure exercise sessions, the V-Care system, developed by COMEX, represents an advanced solution aimed at perfecting resistive exercises in space, particularly aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Utilizing Microsoft Azure Kinect technology, V-Care ensures 3D tracking of body movements without the need for markers. This feature not only facilitates its implementation and use but also allows real-time guidance of the astronaut through visual feedback during exercises.

Faced with technical challenges, including the impact of the participants’ clothing and environmental interferences on the quality of the capture, solutions have been developed to ensure the reliability of the data. For example, it is recommended that participants wear tight, light-colored clothing to minimize infrared signal disturbances and optimize motion capture. Moreover, the optimal positioning of participants relative to the Azure Kinect camera is crucial to maintaining the accuracy of the measurements. Its innovative architecture ensures seamless integration with equipment like the ARED, providing real-time feedback to astronauts to optimize the safety and efficiency of their training. This system represents a significant advancement in the physical preparation of space crews, offering a crucial tool for managing the risks associated with microgravity exercises, while overcoming technical challenges to maintain high quality of movement tracking.

Evaluation and Results:

The thorough evaluation of V-Care, focused on simulations of resistive exercises on a representation of ARED with 11 participants, employed a specific methodology to test the effectiveness and accuracy of the system under conditions mimicking the space environment. This evaluation phase included setting up several success criteria and performance measures, such as the accuracy of movement capture, the stability of the curves generated by the system, and the system’s ability to provide real-time feedback. Participants were invited to perform resistive exercises while wearing outfits optimized for motion capture, thus highlighting the importance of physical preparation and appropriate equipment. The analysis of the results revealed that 56 out of 66 tests were successful, demonstrating the effectiveness of the graphical user interface (GUI), currently based on oscillations, for precise and real-time tracking, and validating V-Care’s capability to provide accurate feedback for adapting and correcting posture and exercise execution.

Impact on Astronaut Training:

The impact of V-Care on astronaut training marks a significant evolution in physical preparation for space missions. By integrating an advanced real-time bodytracking system, V-Care enables better adaptation of resistive exercises, crucial for countering the adverse effects of microgravity on the human body. This technology not only enhances safety by reducing the risk of injuries through immediate posture corrections but also optimizes the efficiency of each training session, ensuring that astronauts maintain optimal physical condition throughout their mission.

Outlook:

The integration of V-Care into training routines on the ISS represents a significant advance in the physical preparation of space crews, offering a crucial tool for managing risks associated with exercises in microgravity. As part of the project’s continuation, a major update of the graphical user interface (GUI) is planned to include body tracking with a 3D representation of the astronaut, their avatar, currently based on oscillations. This development would allow for greater immersion and interaction, thereby facilitating more accurate and personalized feedback. Moreover, the V-Care system could be used on ESA’s “E4D” device for trials aboard the ISS in 2025, marking a step forward in space training technology.

Looking to the future, V-Care could be adapted for missions to Mars, offering a compact and efficient solution for maintaining the musculoskeletal health of astronauts during extended space missions. Studies on the effectiveness of feedback in physical training support the idea that accurate and real-time feedback can significantly improve the quality of exercises by helping to maintain correct body alignment, prevent injuries, and optimize muscle recovery, which is crucial for long space missions where access to full medical facilities is limited. V-Care’s ability to adapt to various training needs and provide detailed performance analyses could transform the way astronauts train, enhancing their health and overall performance in space.

Partner: MEDES has unique expertise in space medicine and in the evaluation/research involving human subjects as well as in the operational implementation of European life sciences experiments conducted aboard the ISS (MARES & SARCOLAB 1 & 2 experiments).

Moon surface simulator

Prepare human and robotic exploration on the moon

Simulate surface operations with a lunar ground (simulating) in the vacuum

In the world, there are several chambers or ground models that can be used for equipment testing, either in vacuum conditions recreating a lunar atmosphere, or on a ground simulating the lunar soil. But very few means simulate both at the same time.

The HYDROSPHERE lunar surface simulator proposed by COMEX is therefore an additional asset for the development of space activities at the European level. The possibility of simulating lunar surface operations under vacuum in a chamber 5 meters in diameter offers a very wide field of exploration.

The installation is composed of three vacuum tightly sealed chambers and a control center.

The 5 m diameter sphere is the main element of the facility, allowing to reproduce the lunar surface with its 3.5 tons of regolith (simulant).

In terms of geochemistry, various regolith simulants can be available ranging from high-fidelity, for example for sampling, sample analysis, and ISRU testing, to low-fidelity simulants and rocks that can be used to test the mobility and situational awareness of a rover. COMEX is currently in possession of EAC-1 simulant provided by ESA-EAC filling the HYDROSPHERE ground. 

Adjacent to the sphere, for all intra-vehicular activities (life in confinement, telemedicine), is a second enclosure used as an airlock and a third enclosure, the habitat, a chamber that provides space for a crew of up to eight subjects. The habitat has a volume that is close to the COLUMBUS laboratory of the ISS. .

The main sphere can be serviced by a crane and can receive large elements of 2m diameter from its top.

Human mission simulations

Surface simulations, manned flights, habitats and life support systems

The Hydrosphere installation can be used for various simulations

• Future human and robotic missions on the lunar surface or Mars.
• Understanding of the human factors of spaceflight
• Simulations of habitat operations and life support systems

The similarity of the hydrosphere habitat volume to the internal volume of the ISS COLUMBUS has been instrumental in the ESA BIOMODEXO project, where mathematical models of bio-contamination have been validated inside the habitat and could also be used to develop methods against dust introduction for future expeditions to the Moon or Mars.

The adjacent control center is used to monitor activity inside the facility. It also allows to:

• To simulate a mission control, as a center in communication with the crew with the addition of a delay in the links
• Evaluate the human-robot interactions that are simulated, for example between the habitat and the main sphere or directly between an astronaut and the robot both in the sphere containing the regolith.

In addition to the lunar environment, the simulator can also be used for other planetary applications such as the technological demonstration of the Mars sample recovery rover, drones (flight systems in a low density atmosphere) or any other similar application identified in the context of extraterrestrial exploration missions.

Robotic mission simulations

Future missions to the Moon will most likely see the advent of cooperation between astronauts and explorers or robotic helpers. The strength of the COMEX Hydrosphere installation is that it simply offers the possibility to simulate different mission scenarios with such robots

• The robot in the sphere and a crew controlling it from the supervision center
• Man and robot in the sphere, in cooperation
• A drone flight in a controlled atmosphere

The expertise in controlled pressure acquired by COMEX for more than 60 years and the infrastructures present on its site make it a unique test and trial center in Europe, whether for underwater, terrestrial or extraterrestrial applications. This is why COMEX has been involved in the development of space projects since the 1980s in collaboration with ESA and CNES and why its facilities are listed with these agencies.