Development of an Atmosphere Management System for Bio-regenerative Life Support Systems

Abstract

Future, long duration manned missions to the Moon or Mars are only feasible through the use of local resources or by producing commodities on site. A solution for on-site production of commodities is the use of greenhouse modules. Greenhouse modules are often considered for space-based life support systems as they can be utilized for food and oxygen production, CO2 reduction, waste water recycling and general waste management. Plants are cultivated by using so called CEA (Controlled Environment Agriculture) technologies. To further investigate CEA technologies, especially for space application, the DLR Institute of Space Systems established the EDEN (Evolution and Design of an Environmentally-closed Nutrition source) research group and laboratory. A critical aspect of this laboratory is the Atmosphere Management System (AMS), which is responsible for providing suitable air temperature, air velocity, humidity and CO2 concentration. The objective of this Master thesis is the development of a preliminary design of the AMS. The development of the AMS must respect existing laboratory interfaces and requirements associated with future laboratory enhancements and research group objectives.