It has been thirty years of space exploration since man last visited the moon. Recently, many people have suggested a new NASA Lunar mission, primarily as a prelude to further space exploration of our solar system.
One of the obstacles which has kept us close to home has been the problem of sustaining life for the lengths of time required for a journey any other planet. A visit to our closest neighbor, Mars would take at least six months each direction. The travelers would be living in space for well over a year.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, has taken a step towards solving this problem by selecting a Purdue University team to head up a NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training (NSCORT) for Advanced Life Support (ALS), which will be tasked with developing technologies to "enable long-duration space exploration and planetary missions and sustain human space colonies." Among the areas to be considered will be solid-waste processing, water recovery and air revitalization, and food processing and safety, all necessary processes for living in space.
ALS NSCORT Mission
This ALS NSCORT was established to advance fundamental knowledge in life-support technologies with the ultimate application of enabling human space flight and long-term planetary missions. It is part of a five year grant totaling ten million dollars. Purdue University scientists and engineers will lead and work with personnel from two other institutions, Alabama A&M University from Normal, AL and Howard University from Washington, DC. This research from Purdue will provide solutions for the International Space Station as well as future space stations, long range flights, and extra-planetary colonies.NASA began their search in July of 2001, when they released a solicitation for proposals. They received four responses, which were sent before a peer-review process, consisting of scientific and technical experts from academia and the government. Final reviews were conducted by scientists and managers from NASA, who looked for relevance to current and future programs and cost.
"I'm very pleased with the outstanding proposal received from Purdue University and look forward to a rich and productive scientific return that can help substantially reduce the cost of supporting humans on future long-duration space missions," said Dr. Guy Fogleman, Acting Director for the Bioastronautics Research Division and lead for the Advanced Human Support Technology Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Slef Sustaining Environments
The research teams, lead by Purdue University personnel, will concentrate on designing self-sustaining environments for future space colonies. Inhabitants of these future facilities will live inside fully enclosed structures; grow their own food; and constantly process, recycle and purify all wastes. A primary source of food and oxygen will be plants, while microbes will be used to break down wastes. Other technologies will be researched for removing impurities from the air and water.Research on long term human life support began in the 1950's, using algae for oxygen regeneration. NASA's became interested in such systems during the late 1970's in order to support long-term space missions. This new NSCORT is not only the next logical step in the process, it will be the largest development in the history of the study.
Living and working in space on the International Space Station? Colonies on Mars or one of Jupiter's moons? These possibilities are now becoming more likely, thanks to NASA, Purdue University, Alabama A&M, and Howard University.
