Soyuz 22 Return Samples: Assessment of Air Quality Aboard the International Space Station

Three mini-grab sample containers (m-GSCs) were returned aboard Soyuz 22 because of concerns that new air pollutants were present in the air and these were getting into the water recovery system. The Total Organic Carbon Analyzer had been giving increasing readings of total organic carbon (TOC) in the potable water, and it was postulated that an increased load into the system was responsible. The toxicological assessment of 3 m-GSCs from the ISS is shown in Table 1. The recoveries of the 3 standards (as listed above) from the GSCs averaged 103, 95 and 76%, respectively. Recovery from formaldehyde control badges were 90 and 91%.