Life Support Systems - Challenges for Lunar and Mars Human Exploration

NASA's Office of Exploration depends on both robotic and human exploration system capabilities to support a rich set of lunar and Mars mission options.

Permanent operations on the lunar surface will demand high systems availability and low logistics. Mars human exploration missions require sustainable operations with no logistics except what has been forward deployed on earlier missions.

This paper will discuss the top-level mission requirements and the systems engineering issues for life support systems which must be addressed to support viable human exploration missions for lunar and Mars applications.