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As space missions become longer in duration, the need to recycle waste into useful compounds rises dramatically. This problem can be addressed through the integration of human and plant modules in an ecological life support system. One of the waste streams leaving the human module is urine. In addition to the reclamation of water from urine, recovery of the nitrogen is important because it can be used as a nutrient for the plant module. A 3-step biological process for the conversion of nitrogenous waste (urea) to resource (nitrate) is proposed. Mathematical modeling was used to investigate the bioreactor system, with the goal of maximizing the ratio of performance to volume and energy requirements. Calculations show that separation of the two microbial conversions into two steps requires a smaller total reactor volume than combining them in a single bioreactor.

Closed ecological life support systems incorporating plants represent the only potential for achieving self-sufficiency in an extraterrestrial biosphere. A model of input/output metabolic mass flow rates for a plant module in an Engineered Closed/Controlled EcoSystem is presented. Wheat crop was chosen as a case study for modeling metabolic mass flow rates. Coefficients for the mass flow rates, for each metabolic element, are determined per unit area of wheat production. The coefficients are utilized to compute the area of edible biomass production necessary to accommodate human food requirements. This model for computing metabolic mass flow rates can be applied for any crop under specified growing conditions.