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Future manned habitats for a Lunar outpost or Martian base will require increased levels of self-sufficiency over Space Station Freedom to reduce the high costs and complexities of resupplying expendables, such as food for the crew. By growing food at these remote sites, not only will self-sufficiency be greatly increased, but significant benefits for crew life support will also be realized. Higher plants, such as those grown typically for food, are capable of consuming carbon dioxide (CO2), producing oxygen (O2), and reclaiming water (H2O) via transpiration. At NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, the Regenerative Life Support Systems (RLSS) Test Bed project will use higher plants grown in a closed, controlled environment in conjunction with physicochemically-based life support systems to create an integrated biological/physicochemical RLSS.

For future extended duration, manned missions, development of life support systems that require minimum expendables, power, weight and volume are essential. The ability to produce useful materials with minimum processing by using metabolic and life support byproducts is also of great importance. Life Systems, working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration - Johnson Space Center, has been investigating various combinations of physical, chemical, electrochemical and biological methods for this purpose. (I)* This paper describes a closed ecosystem air revitalization concept, called a Hybrid Air Revitalization System, that uses higher plants in a plant habitat for removing metabolic carbon dioxide and moisture for their photosynthesis while producing oxygen and supplemental food for crew consumption.