A conceptual configuration of the lunar base bioregenerative life support system including soil-like substrate for growing plants

The paper presents a conceptual configuration of the lunar base bioregenerative life support system (LBLSS), including soil-like substrate (SLS) for growing plants. SLS makes it possible to combine the processes of plant growth and the utilization of plant waste. Plants are to be grown on SLS on the basis of 20 kg of dry SLS mass or 100 kg of wet SLS mass per square meter. The substrate is to be delivered to the base ready-made as part of the plant growth subsystem. Food for the crew was provided by prestored stock 24% and by plant growing system 76%. Total dry weight of the food is 631 g per day (2800 kcal/day) for one crew member (CM). The list of candidate plants to be grown under lunar BLSS conditions included 14 species: wheat, rice, soybean, peanuts, sweet pepper, carrots, tomatoes, coriander, cole, lettuce, radish, squash, onion and garlic. From the prestored stock the crew consumed canned fish, iodinated salt, sugar, beef sauce and seafood sauce. Our calculations show that to provide one CM with plant food requires the area of 47.5 m². The balance of substance is achieved by the removal dehydrated urine 59 g, feces 31 g, food waste 50 g, SLS 134 g, and also waters 86 g from system and introduction food 236 g, liquid potassium soap 4 g and mineral salts 120 g into system daily. To reduce system setup time the first plants could be sowed and germinated to a certain age on the Earth.     

Bioelectrochemical degradation of urea at platinized boron doped diamond electrodes for bioregenerative systems

The recovery of potable water from space mission wastewater is critical for the life support and environmental health of crew members in long-term missions. NASA estimates reveal that at manned space missions 1.91 kg/person day of urine is produced, with urea and various salts as its main components. In this research we explore the utilization of urease (EC 3.5.1.5, 15,000 U/g) along with a platinized boron doped diamond electrode (Pt-BDD) to degrade urea. Urea is directly degraded to nitrogen by the in situ utilization of the reaction products as a strategy to increase the amount of clean water in future space expeditions. The biochemical reaction of urease produces ammonia and carbon dioxide from urea. Thereafter, ammonia is electrooxidized at the interface of the Pt-BDD producing molecular nitrogen. The herein presented system has been proven to have 20% urea conversion efficiency. This research has potential applications for future long-term space missions since the reaction byproducts could be used for a biomass subsystem (in situ resource recovery), while generating electricity from the same process.     

Tolerance of wheat and lettuce plants grown on human mineralized waste to high temperature stress

The main objective of a life support system for space missions is to supply a crew with food, water and oxygen, and to eliminate their wastes. The ultimate goal is to achieve the highest degree of closure of the system using controlled processes offering a high level of reliability and flexibility. Enhancement of closure of a biological life support system (BLSS) that includes plants relies on increased regeneration of plant waste, and utilization of solid and liquid human wastes. Clearly, the robustness of a BLSS subjected to stress will be substantially determined by the robustness of the plant components of the phototrophic unit. The aim of the present work was to estimate the heat resistance of two plants (wheat and lettuce) grown on human wastes. Human exometabolites mineralized by hydrogen peroxide in an electromagnetic field were used to make a nutrient solution for the plants. We looked for a possible increase in the heat tolerance of the wheat plants using changes in photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) intensity during heat stress. At age 15 days, plants were subjected to a rise in air temperature (from 23 ± 1 °C to 44 ± 1 °С) under different PAR intensities for 4 h. The status of the photosynthetic apparatus of the plants was assessed by external СО₂ gas exchange and fluorescence measurements. The increased irradiance of the plants during the high temperature period demonstrated its protective action for both the photosynthetic apparatus of the leaves and subsequent plant growth and development. The productivity of the plants subjected to temperature changes at 250 W m⁻² of PAR did not differ from that of controls, whereas the productivity of the plants subjected to the same heat stress but in darkness was halved.     

Vegetable production facility as a part of a closed life support system in a Russian Martian space flight scenario

A Manned Mars Mission scenario had been developed in frame of the Project 1172 supported International Science & Technology Center in Moscow. The Mars transit vehicle (MTV) supposed to have a crew of 4–6 with Pilot Laboratory compartment volume of 185 m³ and with inner diameter of 4.1 m. A vegetable production facility with power consumption up to 10 kW is being considered as a component of the life support system to supply crew members by fresh vegetables during the mission. Proposed design of conveyor-type plant growth facility (PGF) comprised of 4-modules. Each module has a cylindrical planting surface and spiral cylindrical LED assembly to provide a high specific productivity relative to utilized onboard resources. Each module has a growth chamber that will be from 0.7 m to 1.5 m in length, and a crop illuminated area from 1.7 m² to 4.0 m². Leafy crops (cabbage, lettuce, spinach, chard, etc.) have been selected for module 1, primarily because of the highest specific productivity per consumed resources. Dietitians have recommended also carrot crop for module 2, pepper for module 3 and tomato for module 4. The maximal total PGF light energy estimated as 1.16 kW and total power consumption as about 7 kW. The module 1 characteristics have been calculated using own experimental data, information from the best on ground plant growth experiments with artificial light were used to predict crop productivity and biomass composition in the another modules. 4-module PGF could produce nearly 0.32 kg per crew member per day of fresh edible biomass, which would be about 50% of recommended daily vegetable supplement. An average crop harvest index is estimated as 0.75. The MTV food system could be entirely closed in terms of vitamins C and A with help of the PGF. In addition the system could provide 10–25% of essential minerals and vitamins of group B, and about 20% of food fibers. The present state of plant growth technology allows formulating of requirements specification for the flight-qualified modules.     

Four-month Moon and Mars crew water utilization study conducted at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station,Devon Island,Nunavut

A categorized water usage study was undertaken at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station on Devon Island, Nunavut in the High Canadian Arctic. This study was conducted as part of a long duration four-month Mars mission simulation during the summer of 2007. The study determined that the crew of seven averaged 82.07 L/day over the expedition (standard deviation 22.58 L/day). The study also incorporated a Mars Time Study phase which determined that an average of 12.12 L/sol of water was required for each crewmember. Drinking, food preparation, hand/face, oral, dish wash, clothes wash, shower, shaving, cleaning, engineering, science, plant growth and medical water were each individually monitored throughout the detailed study phases. It was determined that implementing the monitoring program itself resulted in an approximate water savings of 1.5 L/day per crewmember. The seven person crew averaged 202 distinct water draws a day (standard deviation 34) with high water use periods focusing around meal times. No statistically significant correlation was established between total water use and EVA or exercise duration. Study results suggest that current crew water utilization estimates for long duration planetary surface stays are more than two times greater than that required.     

Developing strategies for automated remote plant production systems: Environmental control and monitoring of the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse in the Canadian High Arctic

The Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse is a unique research facility dedicated to the study of greenhouse engineering and autonomous functionality under extreme operational conditions, in preparation for extraterrestrial biologically-based life support systems. The Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse is located at the Haughton Mars Project Research Station on Devon Island in the Canadian High Arctic. The greenhouse has been operational since 2002. Over recent years the greenhouse has served as a controlled environment facility for conducting scientific and operationally relevant plant growth investigations in an extreme environment. Since 2005 the greenhouse has seen the deployment of a refined nutrient control system, an improved imaging system capable of remote assessment of basic plant health parameters, more robust communication and power systems as well as the implementation of a distributed data acquisition system. Though several other Arctic greenhouses exist, the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse is distinct in that the focus is on autonomous operation as opposed to strictly plant production. Remote control and autonomous operational experience has applications both terrestrially in production greenhouses and extraterrestrially where future long duration Moon/Mars missions will utilize biological life support systems to close the air, food and water loops. Minimizing crew time is an important goal for any space-based system. The experience gained through the remote operation of the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse is providing the experience necessary to optimize future plant production systems and minimize crew time requirements. Internal greenhouse environmental data shows that the fall growth season (July–September) provides an average photosynthetic photon flux of 161.09 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹ (August) and 76.76 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹ (September) with approximately a 24 h photoperiod. The spring growth season provides an average of 327.51 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹ (May) and 339.32 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹ (June) demonstrating that even at high latitudes adequate light is available for crop growth during 4–5 months of the year. The Canadian Space Agency Development Greenhouse [now operational] serves as a test-bed for evaluating new systems prior to deployment in the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse. This greenhouse is also used as a venue for public outreach relating to biological life support research and its corresponding terrestrial spin-offs.     

Verification of shielding effect by the water-filled materials for space radiation in the International Space Station using passive dosimeters

The dose reduction effects for space radiation by installation of water shielding material (“protective curtain”) of a stack board consisting of the hygienic wipes and towels have been experimentally evaluated in the International Space Station by using passive dosimeters. The averaged water thickness of the protective curtain was 6.3 g/cm². The passive dosimeters consisted of a combination of thermoluminescent detectors (TLDs) and plastic nuclear track detectors (PNTDs). Totally 12 passive dosimeter packages were installed in the Russian Service Module during late 2010. Half of the packages were located at the protective curtain surface and the other half were at the crew cabin wall behind or aside the protective curtain. The mean absorbed dose and dose equivalent rates are measured to be 327 μGy/day and 821 μSv/day for the unprotected packages and 224 μGy/day and 575 μSv/day for the protected packages, respectively. The observed dose reduction rate with protective curtain was found to be 37 ± 7% in dose equivalent, which was consistent with the calculation in the spherical water phantom by PHITS. The contributions due to low and high LET particles were found to be comparable in observed dose reduction rate. The protective curtain would be effective shielding material for not only trapped particles (several 10 MeV) but also for low energy galactic cosmic rays (several 100 MeV/n). The properly utilized protective curtain will effectively reduce the radiation dose for crew living in space station and prolong long-term mission in the future.     

Increased BLSS closure using mineralized human waste in plant cultivation on a neutral substrate

The purpose of this work was to study the full-scale potential use of human mineralized waste (feces and urine) as a source of mineral elements for plant cultivation in a biological life support system (BLSS). Plants that are potential candidates for a photosynthesizing link were grown on a neutral solution containing human mineralized waste. Spring wheat Triticum aestivum L., peas Pisum sativum L. Ambrosia cultivar and leaf lettuce Lactuca sativa L., Vitaminny variety, were used. The plants were grown hydroponically on expanded clay aggregates in a vegetation chamber in constant environmental conditions. During plant growth, a determined amount of human mineralized waste was added daily to the nutrient solution. The nutrient solution remained unchanged throughout the vegetation period. Estimated plant requirements for macro-elements were based on a total biological productivity of 0.04 kg day⁻¹ m⁻². As the plant requirements for potassium exceeded the potassium content of human waste, a water extract of wheat straw containing the required amount of potassium was added to the nutrient solution. The Knop’s solution was used in the control experiments.     

Effect of salt stress on growth and physiology in amaranth and lettuce: Implications for bioregenerative life support system

Growing plants can be used to clean waste water in bioregenerative life support system (BLSS). However, NaCl contained in the human urine always restricts plant growth and further reduces the degree of mass cycle closure of the system (i.e. salt stress). This work determined the effect of NaCl stress on physiological characteristics of plants for the life support system. Amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor L. var. Huahong) and leaf lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. var. Luoma) were cultivated at nutrient solutions with different NaCl contents (0, 1000, 5000 and 10,000 ppm, respectively) for 10 to 18 days after planted in the Controlled Ecological Life Support System Experimental Facility in China. Results showed that the two plants have different responses to the salt stress. The amaranth showed higher salt-tolerance with NaCl stress. If NaCl content in the solution is below 5000 ppm, the salt stress effect is insignificant on above-ground biomass output, leaf photosynthesis rate, Fv/Fm, photosynthesis pigment contents, activities of antioxidant enzymes, and inducing lipid peroxidation. On the other hand, the lettuce is sensitive to NaCl which significantly decreases those indices of growth and physiology. Notably, the lettuce remains high productivity of edible biomass in low NaCl stress, although its salt-tolerant limitation is lower than amaranth. Therefore, we recommended that amaranth could be cultivated under a higher NaCl stress condition (<5000 ppm) for NaCl recycle while lettuce should be under a lower NaCl stress (<1000 ppm) for water cleaning in future BLSS.     

One-week habitation of two humans in an airtight facility with two goats and 23 crops – Analysis of carbon,oxygen, and water circulation

Human habitation and animal holding experiments in a closed environment, the Closed Ecology Experiment Facilities (CEEF), were carried out. The CEEF were established for collecting experimental data to estimate carbon transfer in the ecosystem around Rokkasho nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. Circulation of O₂ and CO₂, and supply of food from crops cultivated in the CEEF were conducted for the first time in the habitation experiments. Two humans known as eco-nauts inhabited the CEEF, living and working in the Plant Module (PM) and the Animal and Habitation Module (AHM), for a week three times in 2005. On a fresh weight basis, 82% of their food was supplied from 23 crops including rice and soybean, cultivated and harvested in the PM, in the 2nd and 3rd experiments. For the goats, the animals held in the experiments, all of their feed, consisting of rice straw, soybean plant leaves, and peanut shells and peanut plant leaves, was produced in the PM in the 2nd and 3rd experiments. The O₂ produced in the PM by photosynthesis of the crops was separated by the O₂ separator using molecular sheaves, then accumulated, transferred, and supplied to the AHM atmosphere. The CO₂ produced in the AHM by respiration of the humans and animals was separated by the CO₂ separator using solid amine, then accumulated, transferred, and supplied to the PM atmosphere. The amount of O₂ consumed in the AHM was 46–51% of that produced in the PM, and the amount of CO₂ produced in the AHM was 43–56% of that consumed in the PM. The surplus of O₂ and the shortage of CO₂ was a result of the fact that waste of the goats and the crops and part of the human waste were not processed in these habitation experiments. The estimated amount of carbon ingested by the eco-nauts was 64–92% of that in the harvested edible part of the crops. The estimated amount of carbon ingested by the goats was 36–53% of that in the harvested inedible part of the crops. One week was not enough time for determination of gas exchange especially for humans and animals, because fluctuation of their gas exchange was quite high. The amount of transpired water collected as condensate was 818–938 L d⁻¹, and it was recycled as replenishing water compensating transpiration loss of nutrient solution. The amount of waste nutrient solution discharged from the PM was 1421–1644 L d⁻¹. The waste nutrient solutions from rice and other crops were processed through micro filters (MFs) separately. The MF filtrated solutions were processed with reverse osmosis (RO) membrane filter separately and divided into filtrated water and concentrated waste nutrient solution. The concentrated waste nutrient solution from the crops other than rice was processed through an ultra-micro filter (UF) and reused, although that from rice was discharged in 2005. Concentrations of nutritional ions in the UF filtrated solution were determined, the depleted ions were added back, the UF filtrated solution was diluted with the RO membrane filtrated water, and the nutrient solution for the crops other than rice was regenerated. The nutrient solution for rice was newly made each time, using concentrated solution from an external source and the RO membrane filtrated water. Average amounts of water used in the AHM (L d⁻¹) were determined as follows: drinking by humans (filtrated water), 1.5; cooking, etc. (filtrated water other than for drinking), 14.3; drinking by goats, 3.8; showering (hot water), 13.2; showering (cold water), 0.1; washing of hand and face and brushing teeth, 4.1; washing of dishes, dish clothes and towels, 36.4; and washing of animal holding tools, 0.3. The waste water was processed by a RO purification system and recycled for toilet flushing and animal pens washing. A circulation experiment for water was started in 2006 and a circulation experiment for waste materials is planned for 2007. In 2006, a single duration of the air circulation experiments was 2 weeks, although the human habitants were changed after 1 week.     

The effects of composting on the nutritional composition of fibrous bio-regenerative life support systems (BLSS) plant waste residues and its impact on the growth of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

Utilization of bio-regenerative life support systems (BLSS) plant waste residues as a nutritional source by Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) has proven problematic as a result of high concentrations of fibrous compounds in the plant waste residues. Nutritional improvement of plant waste residues by composting with the oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus), and the effects on growth and nutrient utilization of Nile tilapia fed such residues were evaluated. Five Nile tilapia (mean weight = 70.9 ± 3.1 g) were stocked in triplicate aquaria and fed one of two experimental diets, cowpea (CP) and composted cowpea (CCP), twice daily for a period of 8 weeks. Composting of cowpea residue resulted in reduced concentrations of nitrogen-free extract, hemi-cellulose and trypsin inhibitor activity, though trypsin inhibitor activity remained high. Composting did not reduce crude fiber, lignin, or cellulose concentrations in the diet. No significant differences (P < 0.05) were observed in weight gain, specific growth rate, survival rate, daily consumption, and food conversion ratio between tilapia fed CP and CCP. These results suggest that P. ostreatus is not a suitable candidate for culture in conjunction with the culture of Nile tilapia. Additional work is needed to determine what, if any, benefit can be obtained from incorporating composted residue as feed for Nile tilapia.     

A high-performance ground-based prototype of horn-type sequential vegetable production facility for life support system in space

Vegetable cultivation plays a crucial role in dietary supplements and psychosocial benefits of the crew during manned space flight. Here we developed a ground-based prototype of horn-type sequential vegetable production facility, named Horn-type Producer (HTP), which was capable of simulating the microgravity effect and the continuous cultivation of leaf–vegetables on root modules. The growth chamber of the facility had a volume of 0.12 m³, characterized by a three-stage space expansion with plant growth. The planting surface of 0.154 m² was comprised of six ring-shaped root modules with a fibrous ion-exchange resin substrate. Root modules were fastened to a central porous tube supplying water, and moved forward with plant growth. The total illuminated crop area of 0.567 m² was provided by a combination of red and white light emitting diodes on the internal surfaces. In tests with a 24-h photoperiod, the productivity of the HTP at 0.3 kW for lettuce achieved 254.3 g eatable biomass per week. Long-term operation of the HTP did not alter vegetable nutrition composition to any great extent. Furthermore, the efficiency of the HTP, based on the Q-criterion, was 7 × 10⁻⁴ g² m⁻³ J⁻¹. These results show that the HTP exhibited high productivity, stable quality, and good efficiency in the process of planting lettuce, indicative of an interesting design for space vegetable production.     

The water cycle in closed ecological systems: Perspectives from the Biosphere 2 and Laboratory Biosphere systems

To achieve sustainable, healthy closed ecological systems requires solutions to challenges of closing the water cycle – recycling wastewater/irrigation water/soil medium leachate and evaporated water and supplying water of required quality as needed for different needs within the facility. Engineering Biosphere 2, the first multi-biome closed ecological system within a total airtight footprint of 12,700 m² with a combined volume of 200,000 m³ with a total water capacity of some 6 × 10⁶ L of water was especially challenging because it included human inhabitants, their agricultural and technical systems, as well as five analogue ecosystems ranging from rainforest to desert, freshwater ecologies to saltwater systems like mangrove and mini-ocean coral reef ecosystems. By contrast, the Laboratory Biosphere – a small (40 m³ volume) soil-based plant growth facility with a footprint of 15 m² – is a very simplified system, but with similar challenges re salinity management and provision of water quality suitable for plant growth. In Biosphere 2, water needs included supplying potable water for people and domestic animals, irrigation water for a wide variety of food crops, and recycling and recovering soil nutrients from wastewater. In the wilderness biomes, providing adequately low salinity freshwater terrestrial ecosystems and maintaining appropriate salinity and pH in aquatic/marine ecosystems were challenges. The largest reservoirs in Biosphere 2 were the ocean/marsh with some 4 × 10⁶ L, soil with 1 to 2 × 10⁶ l, primary storage tank with 0 to 8 × 10⁵ L and storage tanks for condensate and soil leachate collection and mixing tanks with a capacity of 1.6 × 10⁵ L to supply irrigation for farm and wilderness ecosystems. Other reservoirs were far smaller – humidity in the atmosphere (2 × 10³ L), streams in the rainforest and savannah, and seasonal pools in the desert were orders of magnitude smaller (8 × 10⁴ L). Key technologies included condensation from humidity in the air handlers and from the glass space frame to produce high quality freshwater, wastewater treatment with constructed wetlands and desalination through reverse osmosis and flash evaporation were key to recycling water with appropriate quality throughout the Biosphere 2 facility. Wastewater from all human uses and the domestic animals in Biosphere 2 was treated and recycled through a series of constructed wetlands, which had hydraulic loading of 0.9–1.1 m³ day⁻¹ (240–290 gal d⁻¹). Plant production in the wetland treatment system produced 1210 kg dry weight of emergent and floating aquatic plant wetland which was used as fodder for the domestic animals while remaining nutrients/water was reused as part of the agricultural irrigation supply. There were pools of water with recycling times of days to weeks and others with far longer cycling times within Biosphere 2. By contrast, the Laboratory Biosphere with a total water reservoir of less than 500 L has far quicker cycling rapidity: for example, atmospheric residence time for water vapor was 5–20 min in the Laboratory Biosphere vs. 1–4 h in Biosphere 2, as compared with 9 days in the Earth’s biosphere. Just as in Biosphere 2, humidity in the Laboratory Biosphere amounts to a very small reservoir of water. The amount of water passing through the air in the course of a 12-h operational day is two orders of magnitude greater than the amount stored in the air. Thus, evaporation and condensation collection are vital parts of the recycle system just as in Biosphere 2. The water cycle and sustainable water recycling in closed ecological systems presents problems requiring further research – such as how to control buildup of salinity in materially closed ecosystems and effective ways to retain nutrients in optimal quantity and useable form for plant growth. These issues are common to all closed ecological systems of whatever size, including planet Earth’s biosphere and are relevant to a global environment facing increasing water shortages while maintaining water quality for human and ecosystem health. Modular biospheres offer a test bed where technical methods of resolving these problems can be tested for feasibility.     

Plants survive rapid decompression: Implications for bioregenerative life support

Radish (Raphanus sativus), lettuce (Latuca sativa), and wheat (Triticum aestivum) plants were grown at either 98 kPa (ambient) or 33 kPa atmospheric pressure with constant 21 kPa oxygen and 0.12 kPa carbon dioxide in atmospherically closed pressure chambers. All plants were grown rockwool using recirculating hydroponics with a complete nutrient solution. At 20 days after planting, chamber pressures were pumped down as rapidly as possible, reaching 5 kPa after about 5 min and ∼1.5 kPa after about 10 min. The plants were held at 1.5 kPa for 30 min and then pressures were restored to their original settings. Temperature (22 °C) and humidity (65% RH) controls were engaged throughout the depressurization, although temperatures dropped to near 16 °C for a brief period. CO₂ and O₂ were not detectable at the low pressure, suggesting that most of the 1.5 kPa atmosphere consisted of water vapor. Following re-pressurization, plants were grown for another 7 days at the original pressures and then harvested. The lettuce, radish, and wheat plants showed no visible effects from the rapid decompression, and there were no differences in fresh or dry mass when compared to control plants maintained continuously at 33 or 98 kPa. But radish storage root fresh mass and lettuce head fresh and dry masses were less at 33 kPa compared to 98 kPa for both the controls and decompression treatment. The results suggest that plants are extremely resilient to rapid decompression, provided they do not freeze (from evaporative cooling) or desiccate. The water of the hydroponic system was below the boiling pressure during these tests and this may have protected the plants by preventing pressures from dropping below 1.5 kPa and maintaining humidity near 1.5 kPa. Further testing is needed to determine how long plants can withstand such low pressure, but the results suggest there are at least 30 min to respond to catastrophic pressure losses in a plant production chamber that might be used for life support in space.     

Exploration life support technology challenges for the Crew Exploration Vehicle and future human missions

As NASA implements the U.S. Space Exploration Policy, life support systems must be provided for an expanding sequence of exploration missions. NASA has implemented effective life support for Apollo, the Space Shuttle, and the International Space Station (ISS) and continues to develop advanced systems. This paper provides an overview of life support requirements, previously implemented systems, and new technologies being developed by the Exploration Life Support Project for the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and Lunar Outpost and future Mars missions. The two contrasting practical approaches to providing space life support are (1) open loop direct supply of atmosphere, water, and food, and (2) physicochemical regeneration of air and water with direct supply of food. Open loop direct supply of air and water is cost effective for short missions, but recycling oxygen and water saves costly launch mass on longer missions. Because of the short CEV mission durations, the CEV life support system will be open loop as in Apollo and Space Shuttle. New life support technologies for CEV that address identified shortcomings of existing systems are discussed. Because both ISS and Lunar Outpost have a planned 10-year operational life, the Lunar Outpost life support system should be regenerative like that for ISS and it could utilize technologies similar to ISS. The Lunar Outpost life support system, however, should be extensively redesigned to reduce mass, power, and volume, to improve reliability and incorporate lessons learned, and to take advantage of technology advances over the last 20 years. The Lunar Outpost design could also take advantage of partial gravity and lunar resources.     

Development and research program for a soil-based bioregenerative agriculture system to feed a four person crew at a Mars base.

For humans to survive during long-term missions on the Martian surface, bioregenerative life support systems including food production will decrease requirements for launch of Earth supplies, and increase mission safety. It is proposed that the development of "modular biospheres"--closed system units that can be air-locked together and which contain soil-based bioregenerative agriculture, horticulture, with a wetland wastewater treatment system is an approach for Mars habitation scenarios. Based on previous work done in long-term life support at Biosphere 2 and other closed ecological systems, this consortium proposes a research and development program called Mars On Earth(TM) which will simulate a life support system designed for a four person crew. The structure will consist of 6 x 110 square meter modular agricultural units designed to produce a nutritionally adequate diet for 4 people, recycling all air, water and waste, while utilizing a soil created by the organic enrichment and modification of Mars simulant soils. Further research needs are discussed, such as determining optimal light levels for growth of the necessary range of crops, energy trade-offs for agriculture (e.g. light intensity vs. required area), capabilities of Martian soils and their need for enrichment and elimination of oxides, strategies for use of human waste products, and maintaining atmospheric balance between people, plants and soils.     

GNSS water vapour tomography – Expected improvements by combining GPS,GLONASS and Galileo observations

The German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) operates a GNSS water vapour tomography system using about 350 German GNSS stations. The GNSS data processing at the GFZ works in near real-time and provides zenith total delays, integrated water vapour and slant delay data operationally. This large data set of more than 50,000 slant delays per hour is used to reconstruct spatially resolved humidity fields by means of tomographic techniques. It can be expected that additional observations from the future Galileo system provide more information with improved quality. A simulation study covering 12 h at 14 July 2009 was therefore started to estimate the impact of GPS, Galileo and GLONASS data on the GNSS tomography. It is shown that the spatial coverage of the atmosphere with slant paths is highly improved by combining observations from two or three satellite systems. Equally important for a reliable tomographic reconstruction is the distribution of slant path intersections as they are required to locate the integrated delay information. The number of intersection points can be increased by a factor of 4 or 8 if two or three systems are combined and their distribution will cover larger regions of the atmosphere. The combined data sets can be used to increase the spatiotemporal resolution of the reconstructed humidity fields up to 30 km horizontally, 300 m vertically and 15 min. The reconstruction quality could not be improved considerably using the currently available techniques.     

Tightly closed ecological systems reveal atmospheric subtleties – experience from Biosphere 2

Processes which produce slow changes in air composition in a closed ecological system (CES) may not be noticed if the leak rate of the CES is significant. Dilution of the system’s air with outside air can mask these processes. A tightly closed CES provides the opportunity for slow changes to accumulate over time and be observed and measured. Biosphere 2 (volume 200,000 m³) had a low leak rate of less than 10 percent per year. Oxygen declined slowly at varying rates reflecting seasonal influences, which averaged to about 140 ppm per day during the first 16 months of the two-year closure. Computer simulations of the observed rate of oxygen loss combined with other hypothetical leak rates suggest that the decline would have been hidden by a leak rate as low as one percent per day. Sealing Biosphere 2 involved rigorous design specifications and inclusion of two expansion chambers (called “lungs”) to accommodate expansion/contraction of the atmosphere, which enabled limiting the pressure difference between inside and outside atmospheres to the range of ±8 Pa (0.08 mBar). Measurement of leak rate was by two methods: the first, measuring the rate of deflation of the lungs while holding a constant elevated pressure differential enabled calculation of an estimated leak rate within the usual operating pressure differential range; the second was to measure the progressive dilution of trace gases spiked into the atmosphere. Both methods confirmed leakage to be less than 10 percent per year. Operational data from the 40 m³ Laboratory Biosphere is used to illustrate how normal variations of temperature, humidity and barometric pressure would combine to force leakage and rapidly dilute the internal atmosphere if it were not equipped with a lung. It is demonstrated that very high degrees of closure for a CES enable experimental observation of small imbalances in atmospheric cycles or slow accumulation of trace gases that could otherwise be masked by dilution with atmosphere external to the CES.     

The biological component of the life support system for a Martian expedition.

Ground-based experiments at RF SSC-IBMP RAS (State Science Center of Russian Federation--Institute of Biomedical Problems of Russian Academia of Science) were aimed at overall studies of a human-unicellular algae-mineralization LSS (life support system) model. The system was 15 m3 in volume. It contained 45 L of algal suspension with a dry substance density of 10-12 g per liter; water volume, including the algal suspension, was 59 L. More sophisticated model systems with partial substitution of unicellular algae with higher plates (crop area of 15 m2) were tested in three experiments from 1.5 to 2 months in duration. The experiments demonstrated that LSS employing the unicellular algae play not only a macrofunction (regeneration of atmosphere and water) but also carry some other functions (purification of atmosphere, formation of microbial cenosis etc.) providing an adequate human environment. It is also important that functional reliability of the algal regenerative subsystem is secured by a huge number of cells able, in the event of death of a part of population, to recover in the shortest possible time the size of population and, hence, functionality of the LSS autotrophic component. For a long period of time a Martian crew will be detached from Earth's biosphere and for this reason LSS of their vehicle must be highly reliable, robust and redundant. One of the approaches to LSS redundancy is installation of two systems with different but equally efficient regeneration technologies, i.e. physical-chemical and biological. At best, these two systems should operate in parallel sharing the function of regeneration of the human environment. In case of failure or a sharp deterioration in performance of one system the other will, by way of redundancy, increase its throughput to make up for the loss. This LSS design will enable simultaneous handling of a number of critical problems including adequate satisfaction of human environmental needs.     

Nostoc sphaeroides Kützing,an excellent candidate producer for CELSS

Some phytoplankton can be regarded as possible candidates in the establishment of Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) for some intrinsic characteristics, the first characteristic is that they should grow rapidly, secondly, they should be able to endure some stress factors and develop some corresponding adaptive strategies; also it is very important that they could provide food rich in nutritious protein and vitamins for the crew; the last but not the least is they can also fulfill the other main functions of CELSS, including supplying oxygen, removing carbon dioxide and recycling the metabolic waste. According to these characteristics, Nostoc sphaeroides, a potential healthy food in China, was selected as the potential producer in CELSS. It was found that the oxygen average evolution rate of this algae is about 150 μmol O₂ mg⁻¹ h⁻¹, and the size of them are ranged from 2 to 20 mm. Also it can be cultured with high population density, which indicated that the potential productivity of Nostoc sphaeroides is higher than other algae in limited volume. We measured the nutrient contents of the cyanobacterium and concluded it was a good food for the crew. Based on above advantages, Nostoc sphaeroides was assumed to a suitable phytoplankton for the establishment of Controlled Ecological Life Support System. We plan to develop suitable bioreactor with the cyanobacterium for supplying oxygen and food in future space missions.