Life Sciences in the Space Program 



to isolate the effects of microgravity from any confounding effects due to radiation, 

 volatile contaminants, or other factors in the space environment. Evidently, CELSS 



flight experiments will be much more costly 

 undertakings than the Breadboard Project. 

 Therefore, the decision to undertake a flight 

 experiment should wait until the Breadboard 

 Project produces some encouraging preliminary 

 answers, although definition work on space 

 experiments should begin before this milestone 

 is reached. To support a reasonable schedule for 

 the space experiments, the Breadboard Project 

 should be accelerated to provide definitive 

 performance data in about 5 years. 



A CELSS plant growth experiment conducted within the Bread 

 board biomass production chamber. 



Both the Breadboard and CELSS flight 

 experiments will need to be followed by further 

 undertakings on the ground and in space as a 

 prelude to a fully functioning CELSS. The 

 Breadboard Project should be succeeded by 

 ground-based tests of a working CELSS with 

 human crews of at least two persons, covering a 

 period of time long enough to evaluate the 

 system's reliability. In space, small plant 

 experiments should be followed by similar 

 experiments using the crop plants identified as 

 optimal in ground-based work. These experi- 

 ments will require a substantial commitment of 

 pressurized volume for vigorously growing 

 plants the size of soybeans or potatoes. The decision to proceed with this 

 commitment should depend on a relatively firm decision to include a CELSS in 

 an advanced piloted mission. If such a decision is made, the CELSS Program 

 should be ready to begin development of flight-certified hardware for test onboard 

 the Space Station at about the end of the first definition phase of a lunar base or 

 Mars mission. 



Findings and Recommendations 



Program Requirements 



Findings 



• NASA may conduct extended human space missions, including a possible 

 manned flight to Mars, early in the 21st century. 



to make such missions possible, specific criteria for a CELSS need to 

 be established well before the end of this century. 



The current schedule of CELSS activities, determined largely by budgetary 

 constraints and the time required for new technology development, is 

 inadequate to meet this and other needs. 



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