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The piloted Mars sprint scenario of NASA's “Humans to Mars” initiative involves round-trip “sprints” with a 2-week exploration of the Martian surface. This paper investigates the bio-isolation dynamics of plants and humans in a piloted Mars sprint. To simulate a life support system for a crew of six, a transient, thermal-network model is used. Two crops, lettuce and winged beans, are chosen for a cabin greenhouse. The crew cabin and the greenhouse are physically separated but dynamically interfaced with mass and energy flows. The plants provide the bio-regenerative portion of air, water, food, and waste cycles. The percentage of contribution by bio-regeneration to air revitalization, water reclamation, wet food supply, and waste processing functions are 9, 29, 22, and 50 percent, respectively.

This paper presents the conceptual design of a life support system sustaining a crew of six in a piloted Mars sprint. The requirements and constraints of the system are discussed along with its baseline performance parameters. An integrated operation is achieved with air, water, and waste processing and supplemental food production. The design philosophy includes maximized reliability considerations, regenerative operations, reduced expendables, and fresh harvest capability. The life support system performance will be described with characteristics of the associated physical-chemical subsystems and a greenhouse. MANNED MISSIONS TO THE PLANET MARS are included in the present NASA plans for the first decade of the next century [1]*. The first step of human exploration and eventual settlement on Mars will probably be a series of fast missions (“sprints”), with a duration of just over one year, round trip [2].