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The paper describes some of the features of a reference manual to be issued by the European Space Agency that will form part of a set of standards covering the subjects of environmental control, life support, habitability and human factors. The Manual contains information on the general requirements of life support and habitability and the missions that will drive its associated technologies. It is formatted as a series of individual data sheets that can be updated regularly and which are designed to accommodate inputs from other organisations and individuals. It also includes details of promising experimental work and theoretical concepts, as well as historical reviews that will help to guide the selection of technologies and the design of new systems. The paper presents examples from the Manual which highlight aspects of a systems approach to life support.

This paper considers the design of safety systems as they might be applied to a manned habitat operating in space. Areas reviewed include the delineation, monitoring and suppression of hazards as well as the design of control systems. Examples of methods that could be used to suppress hazards are presented, including schematics for a shut-down hierarchy and a fire and hazardous gas control system.

The paper reviews technical trends in the development of life support systems for future manned space missions. Although open loop systems have been used to date, future designs for installations in permanent micro-gravity orbit, long duration transport and ultimately, lunar or planetary bases will rely on regenerative processes to reduce the penalties associated with on-board storage and the resupply of consumables from Earth. In the medium term, these processes will utilise physico-chemical methods, typically to recover metabolic oxygen from respiratory carbon dioxide and fresh water from contaminated water. Food and waste will continue to be treated as open loop consumables and expendables. Later, as sufficient terrain becomes available, lunar or planetary habitats will begin to use a combination of biologically derived and physico-chemical processes to process waste, recycle organic nutrients and produce food.

A biologically based Air Revitalisation System is compared with the proposed conventional options for a 3 man US Space Station Initial Operating Configuration, (IOC). Whereas previous work has been based on laboratory experiments, this paper attempts to define the practical engineering requirements of such a system. Although the proposed system does not offer advantages in terms of overall equivalent weight, it does form the basis for a totally safe system and provides the potential to combine Air, Water and Waste Management Systems. These details have been used to identify a potential strategy for the development of an Air Revitalisation System, which based on the combined use of conventionally derived equipment and an Algal Bioreactor, could contribute to the long term development of a Controlled Ecological Life Support System, (CELSS).