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Every ecosystem, whether natural or man-made, has a natural tendency to increase its organisational level inducing a maximal utilisation of its resources and consequently, minimising the net output from the system. In order to obtain useful net output from an ecosystem, therefore, it is necessary to stop and to stabilise the evolution at an intermediate organisational level by proper control. “Ecological” life support systems for manned space missions will be required to maximise productivity and safety whilst at the same time respecting tight size constraints, which implies powerful control and regulation systems. However the behaviour of complex ecosystems is relatively poorly understood, their stability/evolution is greatly influenced by intrinsic internal controls and classical control theories cannot be easily applied.

The concept for the “Biological Air Filter” (BAF) is based onto the property of certain selected microorganisms for the complete oxidation to water, carbon dioxide and salts, of gaseous contaminants. The EXEMSI manned space mission simulation campaign offered a good opportunity for testing the performances of an experimental BAF on a real confined atmosphere.

Preliminary development of a core water-recycling system for potable water reprocessing has been performed, supported by a critical assessment of the required architecture and extensive experimental testing of materials, technologies and procedures. The functional architecture of the water-recycling system is characterised by a Core Water-Recycling System (CWRS) reprocessing potable water from moderately contaminated water such as hygiene water and condensation and CO2-reduction waters, and a complementary treatment technology allowing further processing of highly contaminated sources such as urine and brines from the core system. The quality of this last processed water is sufficient to allow its reprocessing by the core system. Technologies involved in the core water-recycling system and complementary brine recycling system are based on chemical treatment, ultra-filtration, reverse osmosis at acidic and neutral pH, photo-oxidation and phase-change.

Manned activity within a closed environment will generate a variety of wastes, both stable and potentially biodegradable. The wastes can never be totally eliminated: waste management aims to make a change of form which is both advantageous in terms of volume and hazard reduction and which does not compromise crew health and safety. Micro-organisms will be carried on board by the crew and will be present in the wastes. The fundamental philosophy of our waste management concept is to specifically exclude or specifically include this inherent microbial activity. The complete safe stabilization of waste requires its exclusion while the ultimate need of element recycle will rely on microbial conversion processes.