A New Approach for Advanced Life-Support Systems Control- I

Life Support Systems (LSS) provide the
necessary conditions to sustain human
life in a hostile environment over prolonged
periods of time. Current LSS used
in manned spacecrafts (eg the
International Space Station) control the
atmosphere composition (ie the percentages
of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon
dioxide) and regulate pressure and temperature
by means of physico-chemical
processes, most of which require periodic
re-supply of fungible materials. Other
vital elements are to some extent recycled
(eg water) or uploaded from Earth (eg
food). Re-supply is a major problem for
the feasibility of long-term planetary
missions. Such missions are currently in
the scope of Space Exploration programs

encouraged by ESA or NASA, whose
objective is to establish permanent
manned outposts, first on the moon and
later on Mars, by 2030.

A new generation of Biological Life
Support Systems (BLSS) is starting to be
developed (eg NASA’s BIOplex and
ESA’s MELiSSA). These use biological
organisms (bacteria, algae, plants etc) to
regenerate air, water and food with the
objective of complete self-sufficiency.
Microorganism cultures are employed to
recycle water from wastes; higher plants
are an essential source of fresh food
through cultivation and harvesting,
water is recycled through plant transpiration,
and oxygen is produced by photosynthesis.