Design and Development of the Life Support Subsystem of a Laboratory Model of the Botany Facility

For botanical experiments of long duration (e.g. EUEECA BOTANY FACILITY) the Life Support Subsystem (LSS) has to provide the composition of the atmosphere as far as the CO₂ and O₂ partial pressure and total pressure are concerned. Furthermore, the air humidity and the soil moisture has to be controlled.

In order to allow the potential experimenters to gain practical experience in growing plant samples in such an environment and to learn how selected plants react to various operational conditions a laboratory model has been designed and tested the design and development of which is described in this paper.