For this year’s microgravity project we will be working with the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Cbana Labs in the
development of a volatile organic compound (VOC) monitor that
can be used in space. A VOC is a device that measures the air
quality of the environment and helps detect hazardous gases. One
way to do this is with the use of a micro flame ionization
detector (microFID). I hate to use Wikipedia as a reference, but
they actually have a pretty good artical explaining more about
FID’s if you want to learn more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flame_ionization_detector. Cbana
Labs currently has a functional device for operation on Earth
but would like to extend the usage of such a device to a space
shuttle or the international space station. The problem with the
current design is the method used to introduce samples into the
device relies on gravity. So our task will be to redesign the
current technology to work in a zero-g or microgravity
environment. Another main consideration that is to be tested is