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The most basic design requirements for a space habitat intended for human occupancy are to provide the crew with the necessary metabolic consumables, remove undesirable waste products, and maintain environmental conditions that are conducive to life, health and operations. Propulsive transportation of the habitat to its desired location, either in orbit or to a planetary surface, and either with or without a crew onboard during transit, represents the next fundamental design driver. Both of these spacecraft elements are typically characterized by a common denominator expressed in terms of launch mass, and can be optimized against various parameters for risk mitigation and operational enhancement. This paper outlines a graduate curriculum developed within an academic focus area termed Bioastronautics in the Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department at the University of Colorado (CU).

The Biological Wastewater Processor Experiment Definition team is performing the preparatory ground research required to define and design a mature space flight experiment. One of the major outcomes from this work will be a unit-gravity prototype design of the infrastructure required to support scientific investigations related to microgravity wastewater bioprocessing. It is envisioned that this infrastructure will accommodate the testing of multiple bioprocessor design concepts in parallel as supplied by NASA, small business innovative research (SBIR), academia, and industry. In addition, a systematic design process to identify how and what to include in the space flight experiment was used.