title: Bioconversion systems for food and water on long term space missions.
abstract: An imperative for prolonged Space flight missions is the conservation of resources. Extensive resupply could pose technological and logistical challenges for those responsible for the management and successful completion of the mission. Therefore, the biological waste water reclamation system (BWWR) which requires little or no expendable supplies and the waste cellulose to edible mushroom conversion system (CMCS) which is conceived as a low energy crop waste recycling system are prototype instruments which have been conceived as solutions to the mission resupply problem. Out tests, conducted with relatively crude devices based on the original concepts, indicate that further research on the basic principles underlying the systems and refinement of the engineering designs will lead to hardware with the potential to satisfy the requirement for minimal re-supply while providing recycled water and edible mushrooms.
authors.affiliation: NSR/Touro Applied BioScience Research Consortium, Dix Hills, New York 11746, USA.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Benjaminson
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lehrer
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Macklin
mesh_terms: D000363:Agaricales; D000818:Animals; D019149:Bioreactors; D002482:Cellulose; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D004023:Dictyostelium; D018504:Ecological Systems, Closed; D004926:Escherichia coli; D005523:Food Supply; D006801:Humans; D008021:Life Support Systems / Q000295:instrumentation; D013026:Space Flight / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014871:Water Microbiology; D018508:Water Purification; D014893:Weightlessness
chemical_list: D002482:Cellulose