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Scientists and engineers at NASA are currently developing flight instruments which will demonstrate oxygen production on the Moon and Mars. REGA will extract oxygen from the lunar regolith, measure implanted solar wind and indigenous gases, and monitor the lunar atmosphere. MIP will demonstrate oxygen production on Mars, along with key supporting technologies including filtration, atmospheric acquisition and compression, thermal management, solar cell performance, and dust removal.

As a key component in its ground test bed capability, NASA's Advanced Life Support Program has been developing a large-scale advanced life support facility capable of supporting long-duration testing of integrated bioregenerative life support systems with human test crews. This facility, the Bioregenerative Planetary Life Support Systems Test Complex (BIO-Plex), is currently under development at the Johnson Space Center. The BIO-Plex is comprised of a set of interconnected test chambers with a sealed internal environment capable of supporting test crews of four individuals for periods exceeding one year. The life support systems to be tested will consist of both biological and physicochemical technologies and will perform all required air revitalization, water recovery, biomass production, food processing, solid waste processing, thermal management, and integrated command and control functions.

Future NASA manned missions to the moon and Mars will require development of robust regenerative life support system technologies which offer high reliability and minimal resupply. To support the development of such systems, early ground-based test facilities will be required to demonstrate integrated, long-duration performance of candidate regenerative air revitalization, water recovery, and thermal management systems. The advanced life support Systems Integration Research Facility (SIRF) is one such test facility currently being developed at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC). The SIRF, when completed, will accommodate unmanned and subsequently manned integrated testing of advanced regenerative life support technologies at ambient and reduced atmospheric pressures.

NASA's Advanced Life Support Program has included as part of its long-range planning the development of a large-scale advanced life support facility capable of supporting long-duration testing of integrated, regenerative biological and physicochemical life support systems. As the designated NASA Field Center responsible for integration and testing of advanced life support systems, Johnson Space Center has undertaken the development of such a facility--the Advanced Life Support Human-Rated Test Facility (HRTF). As conceived, the HRTF is an interconnected five-chamber facility with a sealed internal environment capable of supporting a test crew of four for periods exceeding one year. The life support system which sustains the crew consists of both biological and physicochemical components and will perform air revitalization, water recovery, food production, solid waste processing, thermal management, and integrated control and monitoring functions.

As part of its integrated system test bed capability, NASA's Advanced Life Support Program has undertaken the development of a large-scale advanced life support facility capable of supporting long-duration testing of integrated, regenerative biological and physicochemical life support systems. This facility--the Advanced Life Support Human-Rated Test Facility (HRTF) is currently being built at the Johnson Space Center. The HRTF is comprised of a series of interconnected chambers with a sealed internal environment capable of supporting a test crew of four for periods exceeding one year. The life support system will consist of both biological and physicochemical components and will perform air revitalization, water recovery, food production, solid waste processing, thermal management, and integrated command and control functions. Currently, a portion of this multichamber facility has been constructed and is being outfitted with basic utilities and infrastructure.

In planning for Exploration missions and developing the required suite of environmental monitors, the difficulty lies in down-selecting a multitude of technology options to a few candidates with exceptional potential. Technology selection criteria include conventional analytical parameters (e.g., range, sensitivity, selectivity), operational factors (degree of automation, portability, required level of crew training, maintenance), logistical factors (size, mass, power, consumables, waste generation) and engineering factors such as complexity and reliability. Other more subtle considerations include crew interfaces, data readout and degree of autonomy from the ground control center. We anticipate that technology demonstrations designed toward these goals will be carried out on the International Space Station, the end result of which is a suite of techniques well positioned for deployment during Exploration missions.

The wonder of space exploration is a sure way to catch the attention of students of all ages, and space biology is one of many sciences critical to understanding the spaceflight environment. Many systems used in the past for space-to-classroom biology activities have required extensive crew time and material resources, making space-linked education logistically and financially difficult. The new Education Payload Operations Kit C (EPO Kit C) aims to overcome obstacles to space-linked education and outreach by dramatically reducing the resources required for educational activities in plant space biology that have a true spaceflight component. EPO Kit C is expected to be flown from STS-118 to the International Space Station in June 2007. NASA and several other organizations are currently planning an outreach program to complement the flight of EPO Kit C.

NASA-JSC is evaluating planetary mission scenarios where plants will provide the majority of the diet for the crew. The requirements of both plants and crew diet need to be integrated in the development of the final food system. Plant growth has limitations in type and quantity of crops to be produced while diets must meet palatability and nutritional requirements as well as limited processing labor, equipment and power. A plan is presented for the development of a food system based heavily on grown crops. Although the steps taken in the development are applicable to the design of any long duration flight food system. The process begins with the development of a food list, followed by preliminary menu design, nutritional analysis and finally menu testing.

Automatic thermal comfort control for the minimum consumables PLSS is undertaken using several control approaches. Accuracy and performance of the strategies using feedforward, feedback, and gain scheduling are evaluated through simulation, highlighting their advantages and limitations. Implementation issues, consumable usage, and the provision for the extension of these control strategies to the cryogenic PLSS are addressed.