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ECOSIM is a software tool for the simulation of Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) systems which has been developed for the European Space Agency. A preliminary model of the Hermes Air Management System has been developed during the ECOSIM testing in order to assess the functionality of the software and to verify its results with those obtained from previous simulation tools. The model represents the Hermes cabin with its crew and it includes submodels for the sub-systems performing the following functions: Temperature and Humidity Control. Total Pressure and Composition Control. Air revitalisation. The interactions between these different subsystem are taken into account by the model, while many of the previous simulations made assumptions to decouple the different subsystems (e.g: a constant cabin temperature has been assumed during cabin depressurization transients, to decouple the pressure control section from the air conditioning section).

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.