Chapter 8
Bioregenerative Life Support Systems
in Space Research
Donat-Peter Häder, Markus Braun, and Ruth Hemmersbach
Abstract For manned long-term missions e.g. to Mars, large amounts of food
and oxygen are required to sustain the astronauts during the months- or year-long
travel in space but resources are very limited. Water is already routinely recycled
on the ISS. In order to solve the problem of limited food and oxygen resources,
bioregenerative life support systems are envisioned with closed nutrient and gas
loops. Several ecological model systems varying in the degree of complexity have
already been investigated on ground and tested on shorter space flights. Photosynthetic organisms such as flagellates or higher plants produce oxygen when light is
available. Simultaneously they take up the carbon dioxide exhaled by the astronauts
or other consumers. Urea and ammonia can be detoxified by bacteria. Insertion of a
component of primary consumers such as ciliates could be used to produce fish for
human consumption.
Keywords Life support system · Oxygen · Carbon dioxide · Aquarack · Aquacells ·
OmegaHab · C.E.B.A.S. · Eu:CROPIS · MELISSA
8.1 Introduction
Manned spaceflight to other planets or extraterrestrial moons require a high level
of sophistication. Due to the strong impact of galactic cosmic radiation (composed
of high-energy protons and high charge and energy nuclei) the shielding of the
spacecraft has to be very strong in order to protect the astronauts during their up to
3 years long journey e.g. to Mars (Cucinotta et al. 2013). With current technology
astronauts would have a risk exceeding 5% for mortality and a 10% risk for
morbidity, respectively, for a Mars mission. In addition, a large amount of food has
to be transported to sustain human travelers, and the status and stability of bioactive
compounds have to be warranted for this period. The food can be dehydrated since
water is recycled during long missions from wastes and exhaled air to produce
potable water (Moores et al. 2015; Barta 2017).
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer International Publishing AG,
part of Springer Nature 2018
M. Braun et al., Gravitational Biology I, SpringerBriefs in Space Life Sciences,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93894-3_8
113
Bioregenerative Life Support Systems
in Space Research
Donat-Peter Häder, Markus Braun, and Ruth Hemmersbach
Abstract For manned long-term missions e.g. to Mars, large amounts of food
and oxygen are required to sustain the astronauts during the months- or year-long
travel in space but resources are very limited. Water is already routinely recycled
on the ISS. In order to solve the problem of limited food and oxygen resources,
bioregenerative life support systems are envisioned with closed nutrient and gas
loops. Several ecological model systems varying in the degree of complexity have
already been investigated on ground and tested on shorter space flights. Photosynthetic organisms such as flagellates or higher plants produce oxygen when light is
available. Simultaneously they take up the carbon dioxide exhaled by the astronauts
or other consumers. Urea and ammonia can be detoxified by bacteria. Insertion of a
component of primary consumers such as ciliates could be used to produce fish for
human consumption.
Keywords Life support system · Oxygen · Carbon dioxide · Aquarack · Aquacells ·
OmegaHab · C.E.B.A.S. · Eu:CROPIS · MELISSA
8.1 Introduction
Manned spaceflight to other planets or extraterrestrial moons require a high level
of sophistication. Due to the strong impact of galactic cosmic radiation (composed
of high-energy protons and high charge and energy nuclei) the shielding of the
spacecraft has to be very strong in order to protect the astronauts during their up to
3 years long journey e.g. to Mars (Cucinotta et al. 2013). With current technology
astronauts would have a risk exceeding 5% for mortality and a 10% risk for
morbidity, respectively, for a Mars mission. In addition, a large amount of food has
to be transported to sustain human travelers, and the status and stability of bioactive
compounds have to be warranted for this period. The food can be dehydrated since
water is recycled during long missions from wastes and exhaled air to produce
potable water (Moores et al. 2015; Barta 2017).
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer International Publishing AG,
part of Springer Nature 2018
M. Braun et al., Gravitational Biology I, SpringerBriefs in Space Life Sciences,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93894-3_8
113