Scientists show off self-sufficient space habitat design

While there's no shortage of habitat designs out there for potential lunar or Martian missions, a team of Australian scientists seem to think theirs has what it takes to stand out, with it promising to be 90 to 95 percent self-sufficient. According to Cosmos Magazine, the habitat, dubbed Luna Gaia, employs a so-called "closed-loop life support system," which recycles "almost all material within the system" with minimal input from outside sources. Key to that is the Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative (or MELIiSSA), which uses microbes to purify water, recycle carbon dioxide and, yes, "derive edible material from waste products. " Apparently, that would allow the system to support a team of 12 astronauts for up to three years, with them relying on a largely vegetarian diet. While the system is still 20 or 30 years from becoming feasible, the researchers say it also has some potential applications here on Earth in the nearer term, including more sustainable farming techniques and improved recycling processes.

[Via Slashdot]

[Carbonize @ Oct 10th 2007 11:32AM]

It will never be adopted because, as George Bush is starting to learn, people will only eat shit for so long.

[Jacob @ Oct 10th 2007 11:41AM]

Yes, apparently for at least 8 years. Which is plenty long for a trip to Mars! :-)

[membrane @ Oct 10th 2007 2:12PM]

A trip to mars no longer will take 3 years round trip thanks to propulsion advances such as VASIMR and minimag Orion plus new 100ton class launch vehicles the trip out can be as short as 30days to 90 days though you might want to stay on mars for one earth year to wait for earth to get back into position so you don't have to fly close to the sun to get back home also to give time to perform some science as other wise the stay could only be 4 weeks.
The food supplies needed for a crew of 12 for a little more then a year can fit in the back of one shuttle flight so a mass is not a problem actually if water is recycled and or new water obtained on mars even the food needed for three years would still fit on one shuttle not a lot of mass compared to the 270 to 600tons of hardware needed for the mission.

[mmh @ Oct 10th 2007 11:35AM]

yum

[Joe Maki @ Oct 10th 2007 11:57AM]

Hmm, no Soylent Green jokes?

[Vagrant @ Oct 10th 2007 11:59AM]

You lost me at; "derive edible material from waste products."

[kkowalczyk @ Oct 10th 2007 12:05PM]

Sweet MELIiSSA!

[dj-kenpo @ Oct 10th 2007 12:12PM]

my work was in cosmos last month... not that it matters.

[Ladderless @ Oct 10th 2007 12:18PM]

Out one end, in the other?

[Boynamedsue @ Oct 10th 2007 12:24PM]

god i remember being a kid and looking up at the sky, dreaming of one day being able to live in a self sufficient mobile moon-cock.

[DorianGray @ Oct 10th 2007 2:44PM]

@Boynamedsue

I can't believe you haven't been voted up further -- that was effin' hilarious! I almost pee'd a little offa that one!...

[wrabbit @ Oct 10th 2007 12:24PM]

Not really sure how much useful stuff you can get from waste, there's a reason it's called waste - our body doesn't use it. And yeah I know there's some stuff there that can be re-used but I don't think there's a lot of it. Oh and why keep it vegetarian diet, as far as I know beef jerky can last 3 years easy ;)

[Adam @ Oct 10th 2007 1:28PM]

I'm assuming they're not going to eat the waste, but rather use it for fertilizer. Human solid and liquid waste are actually pretty good fertilizers and 12 people could probably produce more than enough to feed plants.

[Deceth @ Oct 10th 2007 12:44PM]

That's awesome!

[mmh @ Oct 10th 2007 1:15PM]

A: Hi hon I'm home, what's for dinner?

B: (calling from bathroom) Almost done!

[Tucker @ Oct 10th 2007 1:38PM]

Purify the water with microbes, MELIiSSA.

I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.

[James Chartres @ Oct 12th 2007 11:14AM]

Yeah Ticker,

You are correct another example of media taking things out of context and with every reporter adding their two cents it has gotten beyond scientific common sense. Water purification is achieved using a combination of higher plants and algae through the method of evaportransporation. This is combined with physico-chemical methods such as UV treatment, active charcoal and ion exchange beds to ensure that water is potable.

Thnak you to all for continuing the discussion and I look forward to reading future constructive commments.

[James Chartres @ Oct 12th 2007 11:23AM]

Looks like I can not avoid typos either sorry about that.

[Tucker @ Oct 12th 2007 1:07PM]

Yikes, sorry, it was a 2001: A Space Odyssey joke, didn't mean for it to get taken seriously! Sorry!

[membrane @ Oct 10th 2007 2:12PM]

Three words never will fly.
One it doesn't take in account psychological needs the crew would go insane spending three years in such a small habitat and two it's French the Americans will never adopt anything French and the ESA never finishes a manned spaceflight project Remember Hermes and Ard?
It actually would be a lot safer and simpler to vaporise the waste using microwaves or plasma vs compost it and then recycle the resulting gases.
One resource a deep space mission will have in excess is electrical power as a manned mars mission for example will need anywhere from 120KW to 1.5 megawatts for propulsion the incinerator would only take a as much energy as a home microwave oven to completely vaporize human waste in an hour or so which would hardly even be felt by a 300KW nuclear electric VASIMR drive.
Another method to deal with waste might be to put it into the plasma stream of the nuclear thermo or VASIMR engines and use the resulting N2,CO2,and H2O as propellant.

Lastly next generation launch vehicles such as the falcon BFR and ares V will be able to lift over 100 tons 100T seems to be the new bench mark for heavy vehicle designs even the Russians have a 100T version of angara planned so a hab now can be quite large think skylab sized such as the BA330 which the 140T ares V can land on the moon to shuttle ET sized such as a shuttle ET or EDS stage turned into a hab.
20 to 30 years from now a 20ton class vehicle might be considered a light vehicle.

[anonymous @ Oct 10th 2007 3:06PM]

they could just use a huge solar array to get all the power they need. not many people sucking juice off of it.

[abomb @ Oct 10th 2007 3:51PM]

poo-poo platter anyone?

[Carbinator @ Oct 10th 2007 4:05PM]

and it's going to be marketed under the name: "I Can't Believe It's Not Sh*t!"(TM)

[Magallanes @ Oct 10th 2007 4:53PM]

Illusory : A city (with Uni) in Mars (and a amusement park in the Moon).
Expected : A self-sufficient colony on Mars.
Real :Vault13.

:-(

[Anthony Huff @ Oct 10th 2007 5:35PM]

The pic looks like a scene from Legos bionicles except less fun.

[evo @ Oct 11th 2007 3:07AM]

Um, a "largely vegetarian" diet? There's only once source of meat on the moon...

[A3K @ Oct 23rd 2007 5:20PM]

Yes, but there's a seemingly endless supply of cheese.

[James Chartres @ Oct 11th 2007 11:34PM]

I am so happy to see that these articles over the web are receiving such interest and some very constructive comments.

Firstly as I mentioned on another article the research was not purely Australian. A team of 32 professionals from 12 different countries developed the original concept for Luna Gaia. The life support system was developed by 9 professional from 6 different countries and various backgrounds.

The aim of the original project was to see how sustainable a permanent habitat could be. Therefore we attempted to close the air, water, waste and food loops as much as possible using a hybrid bio-regenerative system combined with physico-chemical methods. However due to atmospheric leaks, the requirements for spare parts, luxury items and dietary supplements we estimated the percentage of “closed loop” would be 90-95.

If you read the literature and previous studies it has been shown that most of the saving in mass can be achieved by recycling water and atmosphere using similar or more advanced methods that are and will be used on the International Space Station. It is true for a short stay Mars trip and while in transit you are most likely better off just recycling water and atmosphere and using stored food. This of course depends on the number of crew. Again studies have shown that if the mission durations begin to exceed 2.5 to 3 years depending on the crew size that it is beneficial to start looking at recycling inedible biomass and other wastes. Therefore if permanent habitats are set up on the moon or mars it becomes worthwhile to begin looking at methods to become self-sustaining.

Although people might be disgusted by the recycling of wastes to produce edible biomass this is what happens on the Earth and as a basic premise we were trying to create a mini biosphere capable of supporting a human crew.

The diet is mostly vegetarian however we did look at including things such as insects and tilapia fish because the have a short gestation cycle to maturity and a high percentage of edible biomass.

The main aim of the project was to produce a series of recommendations for avenues of future research. Highlight where there are current gaps and also identifying opportunities for international collaboration. Perhaps one of the key findings was how much of the life support technology can be beneficial for Earth applications. The applications could help solve some of the Earth's greatest problems such as sustainability and the decrease in air and water quality.

For anyone that is interested in reading further the full report can be found at:
http://ssp06.isunet.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=166&Itemid=142
It includes all areas of the research including health (physical and psychological), life support, policy and law, management, location power and even ethics.