Cavity Environmental Control System Upgrade for NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy

Abstract

The main goal of this project is to fulfill the need of a controller upgrade for the Cavity Environmental Control System (CECS) on NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) aircraft. The preceding controller had multiple disadvantages including operating in an unpressurized region, incomplete functionality implementation, limited fault and status monitoring capability, and reduced maintainability and reliability. The new controller will go through the NASA design process to fulfill all the requirements of CECS operation including complete functionality of all devices currently installed on the aircraft, added devices to improve fault and health monitoring, and overall improvement in maintainability and reliability.