NASA NTRS · 20160014799
This is a general presentation on life support systems utilized for human space exploration. It is intended to serve as an overview.
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Hogan, John A.. 2016-10-28. Spacecraft Life Support Systems. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20160014799
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A highly controlled and automated life support system has long been a NASA goal. It is usually assumed that life support for future long duration missions will use physical/chemical recycling systems that substantially close the oxygen and water circulation loops. Such a tightly coupled life support system has been thought to require an overall supervisory control system to minimize crew operation and maintenance activities. The International Space Station (ISS) Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) was at first expected to have supervisory control and automation. After this was found infeasible during the design of the ISS ECLSS in the early 1990's, it was then expected that the ISS or future mission systems would be upgraded to meet the original expectations. Since then NASA has extensively researched life support system controls and automation. Automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have gone through several cycles of enthusiasm and neglect before their recent great achievements, and NASA life support interest has similarly varied. Since the ISS ECLSS was launched, its on-board operational problems have led NASA to deemphasize system level controls and automation in favor of improving subsystem reliability and maintainability. Recent work has investigated supervisory control for a system similar to the ISS ECLSS. This paper reviews past planning and work on the supervisory control of closed, integrated physical/chemical life support systems similar to the ISS ECLSS and its precursors dating back to the 1960's.
GMO plum trees are being evaluated at the Kennedy Space Center as a possible candidate for future space crops. Previously conducted horticultural testing compared the performance of several plum genotypes in controlled environment chambers, resulting in a down-selection to the NASA-11 genotype. Precursory studies determined the water use requirements to sustain the plants as well as the feasibility of grafting non-GMO plum scions onto GMO plum rootstocks of NASA-5, NASA-10, and NASA-11 genotypes. This study follows the growth and horticultural progress of plum trees and in-vitro cultures from August 2017 to November 2017, and provides supplemental support for future GMO plum studies. The presence of Hurricane Irma in early September 2017 resulted in the plants undergoing material deterioration from major changes to their overall horticultural progress.
The development of commercial launch systems has substantially reduced the cost of space launch. NASA's Space Shuttle had a cost of about $1.5 billion to launch 27,500 kg to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), $54,500/kg. SpaceX's Falcon 9 now advertises a cost of $62 million to launch 22,800 kg to LEO, $2,720/kg. Space launch costs were very high for decades, typically about $20,000/kg, and it was understood that this high launch cost made it necessary for long human missions to recycle water and oxygen to reduce logistics mass. Short missions such as Apollo or Shuttle used stored and resupplied life support materials, but for a much longer mission such as the International Space Station (ISS), recycling saves logistics mass and reduces launch cost. The Life Cycle Cost (LCC) will be computed for resupply logistics and for a recycling system similar to that on the ISS. The LCC includes the costs of development, launch, and operations. The new low launch cost makes open loop life support much cheaper than before. Direct logistics resupply would be less costly than recycling for future human missions, such as a long term moon base, a Mars mission, or a future space station in LEO.