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This paper builds on a steady-state investigation of waste heat reuse in an Advanced Life Support System (ALSS) for a Mars mission with a low degree of crop growth. In past studies, such a system has been defined in terms of technology types, hot and cold stream identification and stream energy content. The maximum steady-state potential for power and cooling savings within the system was computed via the Pinch Method. In this paper, the next step is taken toward achieving a pragmatic estimate of costs and savings associated with waste heat reuse in terms of equivalent system mass (ESM). In this paper, the assumption of steady-state flows are discarded, and a proposed schedule is developed for activities that are of interest in terms of waste heat reuse. The advanced life support system for the Mars Dual Lander Transit Vehicle is the system of interest.

As a part of the systems modeling research at NASA Ames Research Center, the use of a market-based control strategy to actively manage power for a model of a regenerative life support system (LSS) is examined. Individual subsystem control agents determine power demands and develop bids to ‘buy’ or to ‘sell’ power. A higher level controller collects the bids and power requests from the individual agents, monitors overall power usage, and manages surges or spikes. The higher level controller conducts an ‘auction’ to set a trading price and then allocates power to qualified subsystems. The auction occurs every twelve minutes within the simulated LSS. This market-based power reallocation cannot come at the expense of life support function. Therefore, participation in the auction is restricted to those processes that meet certain tolerance constraints. These tolerances represent acceptable limits within which system processes can be operated.