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Engineering stategies and implications of using higher plants for throttling gas and water exchange in a controlled ecological life support systemEngineering stategies for advanced life support systems to be used on Lunar and Mars bases involve a wide spectrum of approaches. These range from purely physical-chemical life support strategies to purely biological approaches. Within the context of biological based systems, a bioengineered system can be devised that would utilize the metabolic mechanisms of plants to control the rates of CO2 uptake and O2 evolution (photosynthesis) and water production (transpiration). Such a mechanism of external engineering control has become known as throttling. Research conducted at the John F. Kennedy Space Center's Controlled Ecological Life Support System Breadboard Project has demonstrated the potential of throttling these fluxes by changing environmental parameters affecting the plant processes. Among the more effective environmental throttles are: light and CO2 concentration for controllingthe rate of photsynthesis and humidity and CO2 concentration for controlling transpiration. Such a bioengineered strategy implies control mechanisms that in the past have not been widely attributed to life support systems involving biological components and suggests a broad range of applications in advanced life support system design.
Document ID
19950060042
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Chamberland, Dennis
(NASA Kennedy Space Center United States)
Wheeler, Raymond M.
(NASA Kennedy Space Center United States)
Corey, Kenneth A.
(University of Massachusetts United States)
Date Acquired
August 17, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1993
Publication Information
ISSN: 0148-7191
Subject Category
Man/System Technology And Life Support
Report/Patent Number
SAE PAPER 932062
Meeting Information
Meeting: SAE, International Conference on Environmental Systems
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Country: United States
Start Date: July 12, 1993
End Date: July 15, 1993
Accession Number
95A91641
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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