title: Bioregenerative food system cost based on optimized menus for advanced life support.
abstract: Optimized menus for a bioregenerative life support system have been developed based on measures of crop productivity, food item acceptability, menu diversity, and nutritional requirements of crew. Crop-specific biomass requirements were calculated from menu recipe demands while accounting for food processing and preparation losses. Under the assumption of staggered planting, the optimized menu demanded a total crop production area of 453 m2 for six crew. Cost of the bioregenerative food system is estimated at 439 kg per menu cycle or 7.3 kg ESM crew-1 day-1, including agricultural waste processing costs. On average, about 60% (263.6 kg ESM) of the food system cost is tied up in equipment, 26% (114.2 kg ESM) in labor, and 14% (61.5 kg ESM) in power and cooling. This number is high compared to the STS and ISS (nonregenerative) systems but reductions in ESM may be achieved through intensive crop productivity improvements, reductions in equipment masses associated with crop production, and planning of production, processing, and preparation to minimize the requirement for crew labor.
authors.affiliation: University of Guelph, Department of Plant Agriculture, Division of Horticultural Science, Ontario, Canada. waters@ces.uoguelph.ca
authors.forename: Geoffrey C R
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Waters
authors.forename: Ammar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Olabi
authors.forename: Jean B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Hunter
authors.forename: Mike A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Dixon
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lasseur
mesh_terms: D018533:Biomass; D018504:Ecological Systems, Closed; D005511:Food Handling; D005523:Food Supply; D005526:Food, Formulated; D006801:Humans; D008021:Life Support Systems; D008612:Menu Planning; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009753:Nutritive Value; D010945:Plants, Edible / Q000737:chemistry / Q000254:growth & development*; D012984:Software; D013026:Space Flight; D018505:Waste Management