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The Closed Ecology Experiment Facilities (CEEF) were installed to collect data for realistic estimation of radiocarbon transfer in the ecosystem. Two-week experiments were conducted three times from September to November of 2006, in which two human subjects called as eco-nauts were enclosed and worked in an airtight facility, the CEEF. The eco-nauts were changed after a week from beginning of each experiment. In these experiments, a Plant Module (PM) with 23 crops, including rice, soybean, peanut, and sugar beet, was connected to an Animal & Habitation Module (AHM) which included the eco-nauts and two goats. 91.8-94.6% (by weight) of the food consumed by the eco-nauts and 79% of the feed to the goats (straw, leaf and bran of rice, leaf and stem of soybean, and leaf, stem and shell of peanut) were produced from crops in the PM. Amount of oxygen produced by the crops was more than the amount consumed by respiration of human and animals in these experiments.

In space utilization, an enormous amount of freshwater for drinking, daily use, hydroponics. is used and recycled in a closed habitat. We have developed culture-independent techniques to analyze microbial cells at the single level, a cell itself, and also community level. By using these methods such as fluorescent vital staining (double staining with carboxyfluorescein diacetate and 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenyl indole), microcolony method and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), bacterial abundance and their physiological activity in freshwater used in Closed Ecology Experiment Facilities (CEEF) “Mini-Earth” were determined.

Construction of Closed Ecology Experiment Facilities (CEEF) is started in Rokkasho village of Aomori prefecture, the northern part of Honshu island in Japan. CEEF consist of Closed Plant Experiment Facility (CPEF) and Closed Geo-Hydrosphere Experiment Facility (CGEF) with capability to simulate ecological systems containing plants, animals, human, trees and sea living things. These biospecies are selected according to experimental plans and are maintained their lives in controlled environments. Recyclings of materials circulating in the closed system of CEEF are made mainly utilizing physical chemical treatments. The construction of CEEF will be completed by 1998. This paper mainly describes design of CPEF.

A mathematical model was developed in order to predict quantities of CO2 and O2 gas exchange, transpiration, biomass production, food production and nutrient absorption by candidate crops in Closed Ecology Experiment Facilities (CEEF) in which material recycling in a controlled ecological life support system (CELSS) is to be made. This model includes effects of physical parameters such as light intensity, air temperature, humidity and atmospheric CO2 concentration on these processes and plant aging effect on these processes. Using results from experiments in which candidate crops were grown under controlled environment and data from literature, mathematical models for each crop was given physiological parameters. Then, changes in biomass and food accumulation, gas exchange and transpiration of each crop with time were calculated.

In the Closed Ecology Experiment Facilities (CEEF), waste materials such as plant inedible parts, feces and urine of animal and human, and garbage are to be decomposed to inorganic materials by a physical and chemical (P/C) process; Wet Oxidation (W/O). It is known that significant part of nitrogen (N) in the waste materials is reduced to gaseous nitrogen (N2) through W/O process. There is also some deposition of minerals such as iron (Fe) and phosphorous (P) through W/O process. Nitrogen Fixation Subsystem (NFS) produces ammonia (NH3) which is one of end products of NFS, from N2 separated from module air and hydrogen (H2) derived from electrolyses of water, and also produces nitrate (HNO3) from a part of the NH3 and oxygen (O2) derived from electrolyses of water. As another end product of NFS, ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) is produced from the HNO3 and a part of the NH3.