It's been 37 years since the last person walked on the moon. Since then, more countries around the world (aside from the USA) have been planning to launch another moon exploration mission sometime in the future. On these missions the astronauts clearly need food, water, and air. As most of us already know, when we inhale oxygen our bodies release carbon dioxide. Along with that, a basic knowledge of the digestive system would tell you that our bodies also naturally convert food and water into liquid and solid waste. So what do they do with these excretions?
They had previously developed a physio-chemical life support system that recycles water by purifying membranes and uses electrochemical processes to replenish the air with oxygen and rid it of harmful carbon dioxide. Bodily waste is ejected outside the rocket to burn up in the Earth's upper atmosphere. So why haven't we been exploring space even more since we have this technology down? The problem is that the limitations on the amounts of food they can supply their crew members also limits the amount of time they can explore.
So, right now they're working on the ability to grow their own ecosystems off planet. Who's really working hard to develop this idea? Mike Dixon, an environmental scientist at the University of Guelph in Canada. He came up with the idea of developing "green plants" that give oxygen, consume carbon dioxide, recycle the water, and supply nutrition. Also, NASA's Ames Research Center in California are studying this idea of generating a similar ecosystem. The biggest problems they're facing are that the infrastructure and power needed to support a "plant-based regenerative life support" is large, which requires a lot of material, money, and time. One plant isn't enough, there needs to be an entire ecology maintained for a long time first.
The MELISSA Project (Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative) is currently studying bacteria and organisms that turns urine and feces into vegetables, water, and fresh air. By first obtaining the idea from the organisms found in a lake, they are now trying to apply the same type of processes (of converting solid waste into nutrients and photosynthesis) to the ecosystems of human living.
In recent news, the MELISSA Pilot Plant Project at the University of Barcelona, Spain is spending the next few years testing a "crew" of 40 lab rats. If this study proves to be successful, they will eventually move onto human testing (which may take years). Also, two companies by the names of Odyssey Moon and Paragon Space Development are planning to land mini greenhouses of mustard seeds on the moon in 2014. The current research has already helped decrease chemical runoff in our environment, and has also created a new process of water recycling that reduces the amount of required water in the military's laundry.
If these experiments end up working as planned, this could mean that we may one day sustain human life on the Moon or even on Mars. The implications of this advancement are that we would have the capability of human colonization beyond just one planet.
Billings, Lee. "Living Off the Land." SEEDMAGAZINE.COM. 20 July 2009. Web. 03 Nov. 2009. "Billings, Lee. "Living Off the Land." SEEDMAGAZINE.COM. 20 July 2009. Web. 03 Nov. 2009. http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/living_off_the_land/.
This was fascinating to me because the idea that applying natural ecosystems to human life and improving space exploration could eventually lead to establishing space stations with sustainable living conditions! It's crazy to think about!
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