Closed Ecological Systems, Space Life Support and Biospherics

Nelson, Mark D.; Pechurkin, N.S.; Allen, John P.; Сомова, Л. М.; Gitelson, J. I.

doi:10.1007/978-1-60327-140-0_11

Cited by 30 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…This is currently being done on Earth based on principles demonstrated by NASA's controlled ecological life-support system (CELSS) in the 1990s. 18 In the 1990s, NASA's Ames Research Center and Kennedy Space Center and NASA sponsored research at the University of Utah produced world record wheat yields. 19 Using hydroponic techniques of the kind envisioned for the low-cost lunar settlement, NASA researchers in the 1990s were able to produce all of the food energy needed for a single individual within 10-20 m 3 versus 4,050 m 3 needed for field agriculture.…”

Section: Precursors To Sorties To Station To Settlementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Support for a Low-Cost Lunar Settlement: No Showstoppers

HarperLynn

NealClive

PoynterJane³

et al. 2016

New Space

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In 2014, space experts were challenged to develop strategies that would enable 10 people to live for 1 year on the Moon by 2022 for a total development cost of $5B. This was to be done in a manner that would minimize resupply of consumables from Earth and lead to a permanent lunar settlement of 100 people within 10 years. To sustain small groups on the Moon within this budget, recycling life-support consumables, rather than continuously supplying them from Earth, is required. The International Space Station (ISS) provides existence proof that these technologies are currently available. On the ISS, physicochemical regeneration of air and water reduces resupply of these consumables by more than 80%, increases the resilience of missions, and enhances productivity by enabling science, technology, and commercial payloads to replace life-support consumables. A permanent settlement must also employ bioregenerative strategies where, in addition to providing food, plants also remove carbon dioxide, produce oxygen, and generate potable water from gray water. Food production is only practical if abundant sunlight (or power) provides the light necessary for photosynthesis. Thus, quasicontinuous sunlight, obtainable only near the poles, is the most important resource for meeting time and budget constraints, although regolith constituents and lunar polar hydrogen (presumably ice) deposits are also valuable assets. Although improvements are always beneficial, the technologies needed for life support for the first phase of Lunar Settlement are available now.

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Section: Precursors To Sorties To Station To Settlementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Support for a Low-Cost Lunar Settlement: No Showstoppers

HarperLynn

NealClive

PoynterJane³

et al. 2016

New Space

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“…Resource flexibility is essential in the confined environments of a space mission, and researchers have shown that plants serve as versatile assets in a space mission life support system. Up to this point, studies have focused on the value of plants to harness solar energy and provide nutrie nts, water treatment, air treatment, and behavioral health [27][28][29][30][31] . Accordingly, research into advancing the capabilities of plants for space has primarily focused on those key areas.…”

Section: Plants In Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular Pharming to Support Human Life on the Moon, Mars, and Beyond

McNulty¹,

Xiong

Yates

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Space missions have always assumed that the risk of spacecraft malfunction far outweighs the risk of human system failure. This assumption breaks down for longer duration exploration missions and exposes vulnerabilities in space medical system. Space agencies can no longer buy down the majority of human system risk through the crew member selection process and emergency re-supply or evacuation. No mature medical solutions exist to close the risk gap. With recent advances in biotechnology, there is promise in augmenting a space pharmacy with a biologically-based space foundry for on-demand manufacturing of high-value medical products. Here we review the challenges and opportunities of molecular pharming, the production of pharmaceuticals in plants, as the basis of a space medical foundry to close the risk gap in current space medical systems. Plants have long been considered an important life support object in space and can now also be viewed as programmable factories in space. Advances in molecular pharming-based space foundries will have widespread application in promoting simple and accessible pharmaceutical manufacturing on Earth.

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“…This will provide an experimental basis and a data reference for BLSS engineering applicable to lunar bases. To meet this, from the 1970s and '80s to the beginning of 21st century, several countries, including Russia (BIOS-3 system) 3 , the United States (BIO-Plex system) 4 , Japan (CEEF system) 5 and the European Union (MELLISA system) 6 have performed crewed simulation experiments of BLSS on the Earth.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Establishment of a closed artificial ecosystem to ensure human long-term survival on the moon

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Bioregenerative life support system (BLSS) is a critical technology maintaining long-term human survival on the Moon or other extraterrestrial bodies. In the current study, we carried out a 370-day integrated high-closure experiment (“Lunar Palace 365” experiment) on the Earth in an upgraded ground-based BLSS experimental facility called “Lunar Palace 1”. This experiment was designed to develop techniques to run and adjust system stability under long-term operation and crew shift change conditions. Eight volunteering crew members were divided into two groups with three time phases: Group I stayed in the cabin for the initial 60-day phase; Group II inhabited the cabin instead for a record-breaking duration of 200 days as the second phase; Group I re-entered the cabin, replaced Group II and stayed for the last 105 days. Our results demonstrated the BLSS had excellent stability with a material closure degree of 98.2%. Levels of O2, CO2 and trace harmful gases were well controlled within ranges optimal for crew health and plant production. The system exhibited a strong robustness and could quickly minimize effects of disturbances through self-feedback adjustments. The efficiency of plant production completely met the crew’s need of plant-based food. The purification efficiency of domestic and sanitary wastewater was up to irrigation standards, and the recovery rate of urine and solid waste achieved 99.7% and 67%, respectively. These results are valuable for further optimization of the BLSS in a lunar base and computer simulations of similar systems.

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Closed Ecological Systems, Space Life Support and Biospherics

Cited by 30 publications

References 29 publications

Life Support for a Low-Cost Lunar Settlement: No Showstoppers

Life Support for a Low-Cost Lunar Settlement: No Showstoppers

Molecular Pharming to Support Human Life on the Moon, Mars, and Beyond

Establishment of a closed artificial ecosystem to ensure human long-term survival on the moon

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