Publications  

Papers relating to the Mars on Earth Project®, for which the Laboratory Biosphere
experimental chamber served as a prototype and working model.

 

Advances in Space Research - Volume 31, Number 7, 2003
Space Life Sciences: Closed Artificial Ecosystems and Life Support Systems.

Edited by M. Nelson, N.S. Pechurkin, W.F. Dempster, L.A. Somova, M.A. Shea.        

   Published by Pergamon.

This volume contains a series of papers relating to the most recent advances in space-related technologies, including:

Human Factor Observations of the Biosphere 2, 1991-1993, Closed Life Support Human Experiment and Its Application to a Long-Term Manned Mission to Mars.

Abigail Alling, Mark Nelson, Sally Silverstone, and Mark Van Thillo.

Abstract:  Human factors are a key component to the success of long-term space missions such as those necessitated by the human exploration of Mars and the development of bioregenerative and eventually self-sufficient life support systems for permanent space outposts. Observations by participants living inside the 1991-1993 Biosphere 2 closed system experiment provide the following insights. (1) Crew members should be involved in the design and construction of their life support systems to gain maximum knowledge about the systems. (2) Individuals living in closed life support systems should expect a process of physiological and psychological adaptation to their new environment. (3) Far from simply being a workplace, the participants in such extended missions will discover the importance of creating a cohesive and satisfying life style. (4) The crew will be dependent on the use of varied crops to create satisfying cuisine, a social life with sufficient outlets of expression such as art and music, and to have down-time from purely task-driven work. (5) The success of the Biosphere 2 first 2-year mission suggests that crews with high cultural diversity, high commitment to task, and work democracy principles for individual responsibility may increase the probability of both mission success and personal satisfaction. (6) Remaining challenges are many, including the need for far more comprehensive real-time modeling and information systems (a "cybersphere") operating to provide real-time data necessary for decision-making in a complex life support system. (7) And, the aim will be to create a noosphere, or sphere of intelligence, where the people and their living systems are in sustainable balance.
 

Copyright © 2002 Cognizant Comm. Corp. All rights reserved.

Life Support and Biosphere Science, Vol 8 pp. 71 - 82, 2002

To view this publication on line:

 

Potential integration of wetland wastewater treatment with space life support systems.

Nelson, M., Alling, A, Dempster, W.F., Van Thillo, M. and J. Allen.

Subsurface-flow constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment and nutrient recycling have a number of advantages in planetary exploration scenarios: they are odorless, relatively low labor and low energy, assist in purification of water and recycling of atmospheric CO2, and can directly grow some food crops. This article presents calculations for integration of wetland wastewater treatment with a prototype ground-based experimental facility ("Mars on Earth") supporting four people showing that an area of 4-6 m2 may be sufficient to accomplish wastewater treatment and recycling. Discharge water from the wetland system can be used as irrigation water for the agricultural crop area, thus ensuring complete reclamation and utilization of nutrients within the bioregenerative life support system. Because the primary requirements for wetland treatment systems are warm temperatures and lighting, such bioregenerative systems can be integrated into space life support systems because heat from the lights may be used for temperature maintenance in the human living environment. Subsurface-flow wetlands can be modified for space habitats to lower space and mass requirements. Many of its construction requirements can eventually be met with use of in situ materials, such as gravel from the Mars surface. Because the technology does not depend on machinery and chemicals, and relies more on natural ecological mechanisms (microbial and plant metabolism), maintenance requirements (e.g., pumps, aerators, and chemicals) are minimized, and systems may have long operating lifetimes. Research needs include suitability of Martian soil and gravel for wetland systems, system sealing and liner options in a Mars base, and determination of wetland water quality efficiency under varying temperature and light regimes.

Life Support and Biosphere Science 2002: 8 (3/4):149-154.

To view the publication:

 

The Design Approach for Mars On Earth®, A Biospheric Closed System Testing Facility for Long-Term Space Habitation.

J. Allen, A. Alling.

Abstract:  This paper presents a design overview for a prototype Mars Base, which will simulate a long-term inhabited Mars mission on Earth to determine  the feasibility of maintaining humans in a self-sustaining system providing food, air, and water regeneration. The system, called Mars On Earth®, will initially be designed for a team of four, but the biosphere modules will be constructed so that they can be replicated and the numbers increased to support more occupants over time. In addition to the basic design layout of the physical closed system, a comprehensive approach to the design layout of a long-term sustainable space biosphere is presented. A long-term mission to Mars requires a comprehensive sustainable design which incorporates the complex system levels of the Solarsphere, Geosphere, Biosphere, Ethnosphere, Technosphere, Cybersphere and Noosphere.

Copyright © 2002 by Allen & Alling

Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.
 

"Living off the land": resource efficiency of wetland wastewater treatment

M. Nelson, Odum, H.T., Brown, M.T., and A. Alling.

Bioregenerative life support technologies for space application are advantageous if they can be constructed using locally available materials, and rely on renewable energy resources, lessening the need for launch and resupply of materials. These same characteristics are desirable in the global Earth environment because such technologies are more affordable by developing countries, and are more sustainable long-term since they utilize less non-renewable, imported resources. Subsurface flow wetlands (wastewater gardens(TM)) were developed and evaluated for wastewater recycling along the coast of Yucatan. Emergy evaluations, a measure of the environmental and human economic resource utilization, showed that compared to conventional sewage treatment, wetland wastewater treatment systems use far less imported and purchased materials. Wetland systems are also less energy-dependent, lessening dependence on electrical infrastructure, and require simpler maintenance since the system largely relies on the ecological action of microbes and plants for their efficacy. Detailed emergy evaluations showed that wetland systems use only about 15% the purchased emergy of conventional sewage systems, and that renewable resources contribute 60% of total emergy used (excluding the sewage itself) compared to less than 1% use of renewable resources in the high-tech systems. Applied on a larger scale for development in third world countries, wetland systems would require the electrical energy of conventional sewage treatment (package plants), and save of total capital and operating expenses over a 20-year timeframe. In addition, there are numerous secondary benefits from wetland systems including fiber/fodder/food from the wetland plants, creation of ecosystems of high biodiversity with animal habitat value, and aesthestic/landscape enhancement of the community. Wetland wastewater treatment is an exemplar of ecological engineering in that it creates an interface ecosystem to handle byproducts of the human economy, maximizing performance of the both the natural economy and natural ecosystems. Wetland systems accomplish this with far greater resource economy than other sewage treatment approaches, and thus offer benefits for both space and Earth applications. c 2001. COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Advances in Space Research 27 (9): 1546-1556.

To view the publication:

A Simulation of an Inhabited Biospheric Mars Base to be Constructed and Operated in the Egyptian Sahara.

Joe Allen, A. Alling, F. El-Baz.

Abstract:  This paper presents a design overview for a prototype Mars Base, which will simulate a long-term inhabited Mars mission on Earth to determine  the feasibility of maintaining humans in a self-sustaining system providing food, air, and water regeneration. The paper will propose that the Mars Base test-bed project, called Mars On Earth®, be constructed in the Great Sand Sea region of Egypt, and a basis of comparison between the Southwest desert of Egypt and the landscape of Mars will be made. the paper will describe the essential ingredients for the Mars Base test-bed, which will be designed and developed with the objective of making it simple enough for subsequent modules to be transported to and/or recreated on Mars. The test-bed will be atmospherically closed to examine biogeochemical processes, but open to information, energy and certain material exchange. Material exchange will include any import or export that facilities the experimental objectives for developing a  biospheric long-term closed system on Mars.

Copyright © 1998 by Allen, Alling, El-Baz

Presented at the third International Conference of Life Support and Biosphere Science Jan 11th - 15th, 1998

For a general overview of the history and achievements of the Biosphere 2 project a range of articles can be found in Biosphere 2: Research Past & Present. Editors B.D.V.Marino & H.T. Odum, Published by Elsevier, 1999.

  Biospherics and Biosphere 2, Mission One (1991 - 1993) - John Allen, Mark Nelson

http://www.elsevier.com/inca/publications/store/6/2/0/1/2/0/index.htt

Bios-3: Siberian Experiments in Bioregenerative Life Support.
Attempts to purify air and grow food for space exploration in a sealed environment began in 1972

Frank B. Salisbury,  Josef I. Gitelson, and Genry M. Lisovsky.

Frank B. Salisbury is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Plants, Soils, and Biometeorology in the College of Agriculture at Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322-4820. Josef I. Gitelson is Director and Genry M. Lisovsky is Chief Scientist at the Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of Russia, Siberian Branch, Krasnoyarsk, Russia.

Extract: When rocket science made it possible for humans to venture into space, it became apparent that human life support was the next pressing challenge. For the short term, this problem was solved by applying engineering approaches to provide a spacecraft atmosphere of suitable pressure and composition. Food and water were brought along, and wastes were stored or jettisoned. It soon became apparent, however, that long space voyages would benefit from waste recycling, possibly by using green plants (i.e., algae or higher plants) to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, producing oxygen and even food, as on Earth. Transpired water vapor would be condensed and reused, and wastes from the crew would be at least partially recycled to the plants, the ecosystem's primary producers.

An excellent article giving a good introduction to early developments in the ALSS field as well as important insights into the research methodologies and strategies of the pioneering Russian group who made such significant advances. The article, with interesting illustrations, is published online by the American Institute of Biological Sciences. (click here)

© 1997 American Institute of Biological Sciences.

For further research into the science of Biospherics, a more comprehensive list of books and references is available here.