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Life sciences research in the Space Station era will provide an enhanced opportunity for studying gravitational biology. This will be made possible by extending the duration of research from a few days on the current space transportation system (STS) Spacelab to almost unlimited duration in a Space Station laboratory setting. Plants and animals will be used extensively in studying gravitational phenomena. In many instances animal models will be used to study human responses to prolonged space flight where invasive techniques are required. New hardware developments will be necessary to accommodate plant and animal species in a long-duration facility. This is especially true for the plant and animal confinement systems, centrifuge (artificial gravity) systems, and cleaning and washing facilities for cages and enclosures. This paper discusses these technology development items and the critical issues that need to be solved.

Since the beginning of the U.S. space program, it has been postulated that as manned missions became longer and crew size increased, the penalties of storing or routinely resupplying consumables would at some point become prohibitively costly. This paper reports on a study that was conducted to determine what missions would benefit from Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) technology. The study focused on manned missions selected from NASA planning forecasts covering the next half century. Comparison of various life support scenarios for the selected missions and characteristics of projected transportation systems provided data for cost evaluations. This approach identified missions that could benefit from a CELSS, showed the magnitude of potential cost savings, and indicated which system or combination of systems would apply.