Advanced regenerative environmental control and life support systems: air and water regeneration.

Extended manned space missions will require regenerative life support techniques. Past U.S. manned missions used nonregenerative expendables, except for a molecular sieve-based carbon dioxide removal system aboard Skylab. The resupply penalties associated with expendables becomes prohibitive as crew size and mission duration increase. The U.S. Space Station, scheduled to be operational in the 1990's, is based on a crew of four to sixteen and a resupply period of 90 days or greater. It will be the first major spacecraft to employ regenerable techniques for life support. The paper uses the requirements for the Space Station to address these techniques.

Current research on regenerative systems.

Multiple studies directed toward the development of a regenerative life support system have shown that easily synthesized organic compounds and microbiological materials are potentially capable of being used as foods for long-duration space missions. Animal feeding studies have supported these views. The organic compounds presently believed to offer the greatest potential are glycerol, simple glycerol derivatives such as triacetin, and formose sugars. Laboratory studies indicate that glycerol can be synthesized from formaldehyde which in turn is obtained by the direct catalytic oxidation of methane, a by-product of the Sabatier reaction used in spacecraft atmosphere control system. Formose sugars are derived from the self-condensation of formaldehyde. Mixtures of glycerol and triacetin have been shown to be suitable as a major component of diets fed to weanling rats for prolonged periods. These compounds do not exist as stereoisomers and therefore offer advantages over the formose sugars. Hydrogenomonas eutropha is the microbiological system under investigation. An automated system for the continuous autotrophic production of Hydrogenomonas bacteria is in operation, and the nutritional requirements for growth in the system using urea as a nitrogen source are being studied. Nutritional evaluation of Hydrogenomonas bacteria has shown they are capable of supplying the total protein requirement of growing rats for prolonged periods. The potential and problems of these regenerative systems and the prospects for the accomplishment of a totally regenerative food system will be discussed.