Ground-based Demonstrator for the first space-ready Lunar Agricultural Module

Abstract

The international consortium, under the lead of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) proposes the development of a ground-based demonstrator for a lunar agricultural module to support a future long-duration lunar surface base with essential consumables and life support functions (e.g., fresh food, O2 provision & CO2 fixation, water recycling capability, and well-being). The demonstrator will incorporate two constituents: the greenhouse module and the habitat simulator. The greenhouse module will serve as ground-based analogue realized as a collaborative undertaking between several space agencies. The decision to pursue the development of the ground-based demonstrator will follow the completion of the coordinated study with a goal to have an operational facility no later than 2028. The design and potential subsequent development of the ground-based demonstrator will be conducted with as much fidelity to a lunar deployment as possible. Subsystem accommodation, component selections, redundancy strategies, and interface architectures will be analogue to the actual lunar module, allowing rigorous testing of the concept and its operations on the ground for several years before transferring the lessons learned into a space-ready system design. The presentation will give a complete overview of DLR’s latest development, according to its released roadmap for the development of bioregenerative life support systems (BLSS), by outlining its technological research ambitions as well as the international involvement.