A simple closed aquatic ecosystem (CAES) for space

Wang, Gaohong; Liu, Yongding; Li, Genbao; Hu, Chunxiang; Zhang, Delu; Li, Xiaoyan

doi:10.1016/j.asr.2007.09.020

Cited by 15 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The first actual cultivation of Chlorella in space took place in the 1970's, lasting two weeks (Moskvitin and Vaulina 1975). Other experiments, including not only algae but also other organisms, have been flown over the last decades, for example the Closed Equilibrated Biological Aquatic System (CEBAS) (Blüm 2003), Omegahab (Anken 2008), and Closed Aquatic Ecosystem (CAES) (Wang et al, 2008). Only two experiments have focused to date on the PBR technology in microgravity conditions, artemiss with 30 days's cultivation of Spirulina (Poughon et al, 2020) and PBR@LSR with two week's cultivation of Chlorella (Detrell et al, 2020b).…”

Section: Microalgae Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chlorella Vulgaris Photobioreactor for Oxygen and Food Production on a Moon Base—Potential and Challenges

Detrell

2021

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

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A base on the Moon surface or a mission to Mars are potential destinations for human spaceflight, according to current space agencies’ plans. These scenarios pose several new challenges, since the environmental and operational conditions of the mission will strongly differ than those on the International Space Station (ISS). One critical parameter will be the increased mission duration and further distance from Earth, requiring a Life Support System (LSS) as independent as possible from Earth’s resources. Current LSS physico-chemical technologies at the ISS can recycle 90% of water and regain 42% of O2 from the astronaut’s exhaled CO2, but they are not able to produce food, which can currently only be achieved using biology. A future LSS will most likely include some of these technologies currently in use, but will also need to include biological components. A potential biological candidate are microalgae, which compared to higher plants, offer a higher harvest index, higher biomass productivity and require less water. Several algal species have already been investigated for space applications in the last decades, being Chlorella vulgaris a promising and widely researched species. C. vulgaris is a spherical single cell organism, with a mean diameter of 6 µm. It can grow in a wide range of pH and temperature levels and CO2 concentrations and it shows a high resistance to cross contamination and to mechanical shear stress, making it an ideal organism for long-term LSS. In order to continuously and efficiently produce the oxygen and food required for the LSS, the microalgae need to grow in a well-controlled and stable environment. Therefore, besides the biological aspects, the design of the cultivation system, the Photobioreactor (PBR), is also crucial. Even if research both on C. vulgaris and in general about PBRs has been carried out for decades, several challenges both in the biological and technological aspects need to be solved, before a PBR can be used as part of the LSS in a Moon base. Those include: radiation effects on algae, operation under partial gravity, selection of the required hardware for cultivation and food processing, system automation and long-term performance and stability.

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Section: Microalgae Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chlorella Vulgaris Photobioreactor for Oxygen and Food Production on a Moon Base—Potential and Challenges

Detrell

2021

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

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“…4 This module also flew in STS-107, 6 but no results were reported due to the accident of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have employed a Closed Aquatic Ecosystem 10,11 (CAES) as well for experiments relevant to ecophysiology, a discipline that "seeks to clarify the role and importance of physiological processes in ecological relations of species. 12 " A recent initiative by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans to include an aquatic habitat in their International Space Station module, Kibo.…”

Section: A Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educational Value of Experiments on Life Support Systems with Ground-Based Aquatic Habitats

Drayer

Howard

2012

42nd International Conference on Environmental Systems

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On April 10th 2010, at the Kennedy Space Center, President Barack Obama pronounced his "Remarks on Space Exploration in the 21st Century." The President included closedloop life support systems (LSS) as a technology that "can help improve daily lives of people here on Earth, as well as testing and improving upon capabilities in space." A challenge to enable research on LSS is the need for educational capacities that may open up opportunities for teachers and students to teach, learn, and experiment with a small-scale version of these systems. Such is the case in higher-education institutions with programs in life sciences and engineering. These may have educational platforms available in their laboratories to, for example, study attributes of robustness or optimality in controllers driving servomechanisms and electric motors, but there is no small-scale platform available to study the ecophysiological performance of higher plants in an isolated artificial ecosystem. This paper presents aquatic habitats as educational platforms for experiments in closed-loop LSS, and the lessons learned while working with undergraduate students at the Human-Automation Systems Lab of the Georgia Institute of Technology. It presents the challenges that these systems pose to students in engineering and sciences, and highlights the opportunities to support higher-education-level teaching and learning of concepts in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

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“…In the following years microalgae and photosynthetic cyanobacteria always played a major role in the development of controlled ecological life support systems (CELSSs), being members of the first trophic level producing oxygen as the essential basis of human and animal life [1,3,4,7]. Chlorella, as representative of green microalgae, was also among the species used for the second stage of "BIOS-3" in 1976 [1].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since then various concepts for biological life support systems were designed and some small subsystems with one or two trophic levels of the food chain were even tested during satellite missions [3,4] comprised of either only producers such as plants or consumers such as fish. Closed control systems also including men were created and tested during longer periods of several months on the ground.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photobioreactors in Life Support Systems

Wagner

Braun

Slenzka³

et al. 2015

Microalgae Biotechnology

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Life support systems for long-term space missions or extraterrestrial installations have to fulfill major functions such as purification of water and regeneration of atmosphere as well as the generation of food and energy. For almost 60 years ideas for biological life support systems have been collected and various concepts have been developed and tested. Microalgae as photosynthetic organisms have played a major role in most of these concepts. This review deals with the potentials of using eukaryotic microalgae for life support systems and highlights special requirements and frame conditions for designing space photobioreactors especially regarding illumination and aeration. Mono- and dichromatic illumination based on LEDs is a promising alternative for conventional systems and preliminary results yielded higher photoconversion efficiencies (PCE) for dichromatic red/blue illumination than white illumination. Aeration for microgravity conditions should be realized in a bubble-free manner, for example, via membranes. Finally, a novel photobioreactor concept for space application is introduced being parameterized and tested with the microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. This system has already been tested during two parabolic flight campaigns.

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A simple closed aquatic ecosystem (CAES) for space

Cited by 15 publications

References 14 publications

Chlorella Vulgaris Photobioreactor for Oxygen and Food Production on a Moon Base—Potential and Challenges

Chlorella Vulgaris Photobioreactor for Oxygen and Food Production on a Moon Base—Potential and Challenges

Educational Value of Experiments on Life Support Systems with Ground-Based Aquatic Habitats

Photobioreactors in Life Support Systems

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