The ECLSS (Environmentally Controlled Life Support System) project goals are to identify key requirements and guidelines for a Life Support System (LSS) for surface missions based on the Exploration Spirals, to review the various technology options and candidates to fulfill the life support functionality, and to conduct initial trades and assessments at a high level.
With the completion of the first six month phase of the project, ORBITEC has generated and shown that for each Exploration Spiral, different LSS architectures are optimal, but when an entire mission model is considered, hybrid systems become more attractive. Also, we can easily show that future spiral requirements should and will influence the technologies and level of closure for earlier spiral developments to reduce overall development and implementation costs, and to increase commonality across the Constellation systems.
Throughout the second phase of the project, ORBITEC will continue to refine the requirements and assumptions, add more detail to the LSS architectures and update as necessary, and continue trade studies and analyses integrating reliability, robustness, Technology Readiness Levels (TRL), and psychological effects experienced by the crew as a result of the use of a particular technology.