Deep Space Habitat ECLSS Design Concept

Abstract

Life support is vital to human spaceflight, and most current life support systems employ single-use hardware or regenerable technologies that throw away the waste products, relying on resupply to make up the consumables lost in the process. Because the long-term goal of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is to expand human presence beyond low-earth orbit, life support systems must become self-sustaining for missions where resupply is not practical. From May through October 2011, the life support team at the Johnson Space Center was challenged to define requirements, develop a system concept, and create a preliminary life support system design for a non-planetary Deep Space Habitat that could sustain a crew of four in near earth orbit for a duration of 388 days. Some of the preferred technology choices to support this architecture were passed over because the mission definition has an unmanned portion lasting 825 days. The main portion of the architecture was derived from technologies currently integrated on the International Space Station as well as upcoming technologies with moderate Technology Readiness Levels. The final architecture concept contains only partially-closed air and water systems, as the breakeven point for some of the closure technologies was not achieved with the mission duration.

Extension of Equivalent System Mass for Human Exploration Missions on Mars

“…While the ESM framework 26 has been widely adopted in Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) analysis 24,[27][28][29][30][31] , it has faced critique for the ambiguity in its application, an inability to account for development costs 32 , and most recently, failure to account for uncertainty 33 . Alternative frameworks have been proposed to replace 34 or extend ESM with additional metrics 35 that factor in complexity 36 .…”

Systematic review of the technical and physiological constraints of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle that affect the capability of astronauts to exercise effectively during spaceflight

“…On the MPCV, assuming a crew of four astronauts that were eating three meals per day and following the same exercise countermeasures as the ISS, 209.16kg of food and 168 litres of fluid would be needed for a 21 day mission. A three year mission to Mars, although such a mission is likely to involve additional space (such as a Deep Space Habitat (DSH) (Curley, Stambaugh, Swickrath, Anderson, & Rotter, 2012)), would require 10886kg of food (Allen et al, 2007) and 8760 litres of fluid for a crew of four.…”

“…Frechette, personal communication, August 07, 2019). One way that this may be accomplished is if the MPCV were to be attached to a Deep-Space Habitat (DSH) (Curley et al, 2012). During these missions the crew would live within a DSH which would minimise the volume and power constraints of the MPCV in relation to exercise, as the MPCV would only be used to leave/return to Earth, emergency escape, and for exploration excursions for up to seven days (Curley et al, 2012).…”

“…As such it is recommended that the European Space Agency amends policy to necessitate exercise for missions of seven days or more, rather than nine, and that the MPCV is not used for missions longer than seven days unless exercise countermeasures are available in order to reduce risk of injury to the crew involved. As current ISS countermeasures are not usable within the constraints of the MPCV identified within this review (Thompson et al, 2014), new exercise countermeasures will need to be developed that work within these constraints or the MPCV will need to be used in conjunction with a DSH (Curley et al, 2012) with enough space to allow the use of current ISS countermeasures.…”