Handbook of Life Support Systems for Spacecraft and Extraterrestrial Habitats

1. Effects of Reduced Gravity

   • Aaron Harrinarine Persad

2. Hazards of Space Debris

   • Heidi Carol Hammerstein, Stephen Alexander Daire

3. Lunar Environment, Overview

   • Maci J. Harrell, G. Starr Schroeder, Stephen A. Daire

4. Characteristics of the Martian Surface

   • David F. Wassell

5. Spaceflight Nutritional Support

   • G. Starr Schroeder

6. Maintaining Crew Bone Health

   • Jörn Rittweger

7. Minimizing Muscle Atrophy

   • Christopher J. Gaffney, Tim Etheridge, Nathaniel J. Szewczyk

8. Human Factors Requirements

   • Ilaria Cinelli, Annette Sobel, Jaime Harvey, Diego M. Garcia

9. Short- and Long-Duration Mission Human Factors Requirements

   • Ilaria Cinelli

10. Russian Life Support Systems: Vostok, Voskhod, and Soyuz

    • Bart Hendrickx

11. Recent American Life Support Systems: Skylab, Spacelab, and the Shuttle

    • Davide Sivolella

12. Life Support Systems of the International Space Station

    • Davide Sivolella

13. Essentials of Life Support Systems: Carbon Dioxide Scrubbing

    • David F. Wassell

14. Extravehicular Activity Prebreathe Protocols

    • Erik Seedhouse

15. Common Examples of Physico-Chemical Systems Installed Aboard Submarines

    • Dustin L. Wallace

16. Examples of Physico-Chemical Life Support Systems: International Space Station

    • Dustin L. Wallace

17. Methods of Water Management, Water Recovery, and Quality Monitoring

    • Scott Ritter

18. Designing a Closed Ecological Life Support System for Plants, Overview

    • Paul Zabel

19. Crop Selection in Controlled Ecological Life Support Systems

    • Keith D. Crooker

20. Water Recovery and Waste Processing

    • Keith D. Crooker

This reference work gathers all of the latest technologies, information, definitions and explanations of spacecraft life support systems, while providing in-depth coverage of the current knowledge of the business of keeping astronauts alive during their missions. It is intended that this MRW be the go-to reference work not only for aerospace engineers, but also for graduate and undergraduate aerospace engineers and space scientists. The area of spacecraft life support is comprised of dozens of specialties and sub-specialties within the fields of engineering, biophysics, and medicine. As space agencies around the world pursue cutting-edge life support technologies, much more information and data is accumulated. When humans move out into the solar system to stay for long durations, the most immediate challenge will be the provision of reliable and robust life support systems in locations devoid of food, air, and water. These life support systems must provide these commodities in each phase of spaceflight, including intra-vehicular activity (IVA) and extra-vehicular activity (EVA). Systems supporting human life must also fulfill myriad requirements: exceptional reliability in the space environment, allowing maintenance and component replacement in space; reduced resupply mass of consumables and spares; the ability to utilize local planetary resources for self sufficiency; and minimized mass power and volume requirements.  These requirements will assume ever greater importance as bolder missions are envisioned and more sophisticated life support systems are required. For example, the next decade could see human missions to Mars and a return to the Moon. In the not-so-distant future, there is the prospect of Mars One and the creation of a permanent extraterrestrial colony. It may appear that a suitable environment can be created simply by reproducing terrestrial environmental conditions within a vehicle. In reality, it is first necessary to define the environmental characteristics humans require and match these requirements with the myriad design constraints. This is no easy task, because implementing these environmental parameters within a spacecraft can be challenging, while balancing the various requirements and constraints can test the abilities of even the most gifted aerospace engineer. Yet it is a crucial field of study and the experts contributing to this volume are on the very front lines.

• Manned Spaceflight Consultant, Mississauga, Canada

  Erik Seedhouse

• Astro Info Service Ltd, Halesowen, United Kingdom

  David J Shayler

Dr. Erik Seedhouse worked as an Astronaut Training Consultant for Bigelow Aerospace in 2005, a company for whom he wrote the Spaceflight Participants Flight Surgeon’s Manual, and also prepared many reports and oversaw training in his years with the DRDC. Erik is a research scientist specializing in environmental life sciences and physiology, the subject in which he obtained his Ph.D. in Physiology while working for the European Space Agency between 1996 and 1998. In 2009, he was one of the final candidates for selection as an astronaut in the CSA’s Astronaut Recruitment Campaign. He is a certified commercial suborbital astronaut who will fly a payload mission in 2014. He is also Training Director for Astronauts for Hire and, for the last four years, served as Director of Canada’s Manned Centrifuge Operations.

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