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Work completed to date within the NASA CELSS program suggests that the technologies needed for growing plants in the space environment are sufficiently well understood to allow an early application that would enhance the quality of life for the crew while they are in space. Specifically, the growth of salad vegetables on Space Station Freedom, and during other long duration missions, can provide psychological and dietary benefits to crewmembers. For this reason, a unit capable of producing 600 grams of edible salad vegetables, enough for one salad three times a week for a crew of four is being planned at the NASA Ames Research Center with the involvement of university scientists and engineers. Although the growth requirements for specific plants are well established, providing these requirements within the constraints of the space environment will demand preliminary space flight tests of selected technologies, and of some plant growth behaviors.

Animal research on the Space Station presents the need for bioisolation, which is here defined as instrumental and operational provisions, which will prevent the exchange of particles greater than 0.3 μ size and microorganisms between crew and animals. Current design principles for the Biological Research Project thus call for: 1. use of specific pathogen-free animals; 2. keeping animals at all times in enclosed habitats, provided with microbial filters and a waste collection system; 3. placing habitats in a holding rack, centrifuge, and workbench, all equipped with particulate and odor filters, 4. washing dirty cage units in an equipment cleaner, with treatment and recycling of the water; 5. designing components and facilities so as to ensure maximal accessibility for cleaning; 6. defining suitable operational procedures. Limited ground tests of prototype components indicate that proper bioisolation can thus be achieved.

The Advanced Programs Office in the Life Sciences Division at Ames has performed a survey and analysis of hardware and operational requirements necessary for supporting plant and animal research onboard the Space Station. This research may be conducted internal to a dedicated pressurized module, distributed among several modules, and on external platforms and free flyers. Hypothetical experiments have been defined and integrated into 90 day missions to allow analysis of crew activities and timelines, resource requirements (e.g. power, weight, and volume), equipment layouts, and alternative levels of equipment automation. Where these analyses have shown critical areas for automation, conceptual designs have been developed to evaluate feasibility. To stay within current Space Station resource allocations, approximately 85% of the planned life science experiment tasks must be automated.

The Advanced Programs Office at NASA Ames Research Center has defined hypothetical experiments for a 90-day mission on Space Station to allow analysis of the materials necessary to conduct the experiments and to assess the impact on waste processing of recyclable materials and storage requirements of samples to be returned to earth for analysis as well as of non-recyclable materials. The materials include the specimens themselves, the food, water, and gases necessary to maintain them, the expendables necessary to conduct the experiments, and the metabolic products of the specimens. This study defines the volumes. flow rates, and states of these materials, Process concepts for materials handling will include a cage cleaner, trash compactor, biological stabilizer, and various recycling devices.