The minimal cost of life in space.
The cost of keeping people alive in space is assessed from a theoretical viewpoint and using two actual designs for plant growth systems. While life support is theoretically not very demanding, our ability to implement life support is well below theoretical limits. A theoretical limit has been calculated from requirements and the state of the art for plant growth has been calculated using data from the BIO-Plex PDR and from the Cornell CEA prototype system. The very low efficiency of our current approaches results in a high mission impact, though we can still see how to get a significant reduction in cost of food when compared to supplying it from Earth. Seeing the distribution of costs should allow us to improve our current designs.
Drysdale
A E
AE
Boeing, KSC, FL 32815, USA. alan.e.drysdale@boeing.com
Rutkze
C J
CJ
Albright
L D
LD
LaDue
R L
RL
D000383:Agriculture / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods; D001274:Atmospheric Pressure; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D018504:Ecological Systems, Closed; D005118:Extraterrestrial Environment; D005160:Facility Design and Construction; D006801:Humans; D008021:Life Support Systems / Q000191:economics*; D018535:Mars; D010945:Plants, Edible / Q000254:growth & development; D011835:Radiation Protection; D013026:Space Flight / Q000191:economics*; D018531:Spacecraft / Q000191:economics