Identifier
ALS-NSCORT:WS14
Abstract
The cost of keeping people alive in space is assessed from a theoretical viewpoint and using two actual designs for plant growth systems. While life support is theoretically not very demanding, our ability to implement life support is well below theoretical limits. A theoretical limit has been calculated from requirements and the state of the art for plant growth has been calculated using data from the BIO-Plex PDR and from the Cornell CEA prototype system. The very low efficiency of our current approaches results in a high mission impact, though we can still see how to get a significant reduction in cost of food when compared to supplying it from Earth. Seeing the distribution of costs should allow us to improve our current designs.
8 pages
Provider Notes:Alan Drysdale would like us to review his paper. This will help us get insight into how he views the systems problem. Let's try to discuss this paper at our next meeting.Thanks,Joe.
Document Provided By:
Joseph Pekny
Project Lead
Joseph Pekny
Date of this Version
February 2003
ALS NSCORT Project Number
Project 15 - Simulation Based Optimatization Approach to Model and Design of an Advanced Life Support System
Format
PDF version 1.4 (Acrobat 5.x)
Publisher
ALS-NSCORT
Project Administrator
Dave Kotterman, dkotter@purdue.edu
ALS NSCORT Series
Internal Document: Systems: General
Language
English
Rights
Copyright 2003, ALS-NSCORT. All Rights Reserved.
Access
This item is password protected and only available to authorized individuals. To inquire about authorization please contact the project administrator.
Comments
Listed as COSPAR02-A-00508. This is likely a preprint. The article discusses the viability of supporting life in space.