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Man to Mars: a perfect example of circular economy

Space is a very hostile environment for man, and so far all the metabolic needs have to be transported from Earth. When considering  very long term presence in space these masses represent an enormous mass not compatible with the performance of current launchers. In Europe, the MELiSSA (Micro-Ecological  Life  Support System Alternative) project was initiated in 1989,  as a tool to gain understanding of closed life support, as well as the development of the technology for a future life support system.

Time: Wed 2017-03-01 15.00 - 16.00

Location: Room FA32, Roslagstullsbacken 21, AlbaNova

Participating: Christophe Lasseur, ESA

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The driving element of MELiSSA is the production of food, water and oxygen from organic waste (inedible biomass, CO2, urea etc.). Inspired by the principle of an ”aquatic” ecosystem, MELiSSA comprises several processes, called compartments, from the anoxygenic fermenter up to the photosynthetic one (i.e. algae and higher plants). The choise of this compartmentalised structure is required by the very high level of safety requirements and justified by the need of an engineering approach and to build deterministic control strategy.

During the past 27 years of research and development, a very progressive approach has been developed to understand, simulate, test and control the MELiSSA loop. This approach starts from the selection of processes, their characterisation and mathematical modelling, the validation of the control strategy, up to the demonstration on Earth, at pilot scale and leads to preliminary flight experiments.

This presentation recalls the main features of the project and summarises the recent achievements.

Coffee and cake will be available for the first 30 attendees at 15:00, warmly welcome!

Page responsible:Ceona Lindstein
Belongs to: KTH Space Center
Last changed: Feb 24, 2017