Human Life Support During Interplanetary Travel and Domicile Part Vl: Generic Modular Flow Schematic for Hybrid Physical/Chemical-Biological Life Support Systems

A model is being developed to quantitatively compare and thus assist in the selection of systems and technology options for defined missions envisioned in NASA's Space Exploration Initiative. It consists of a modular top-down hierarchical break-down of the life support systems (LSS) into subsystems, and further break-down of the subsystems into functional elements representing individual processing technologies. A series of papers entitled Human Life Support During Interplanetary Travel & Domicile are planned to describe the techniques and results. Parts I through V have focused on physical/chemical (P/C) Life Support Systems Analysis, with trade-off studies at the systems and technology levels for open and closed loop configurations.

This paper discusses an extension to the Generic Modular Flow Schematic (GMFS) for P/C Life Support Systems by the addition of biological (Bio) processes. The P/C-Bio architecture includes plant, aquaculture, microbial and animal habitat subsystems in addition to the human habitat subsystem. In addition to the customized temperature and humidity control and air and water processing for the individual habitats, two additional Level I blocks, i.e. Major Feedstock Production and Food Preparation & Packaging have been included. The inedible plant, aquaculture, microbial, and animal solids are processed in a Solids Beneficiation block for recycling. Subsequent papers will provide systems and technology trade-off studies.