even moCELSS

Message: 11
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 19:46:57 -0000

>
> Why tie yourself down to using composting?

CEC -- Cation Exchange Capacity

Lunar regolith is not soil, and Martian soil is about
the worst kind.
What both of these lack is the ability to hold onto
nutrients such as
K+ and Ca++. This ability is called Cation Exchange
Capacity or CEC.
The soil materials with the highest CEC are clay and
humus. Clay is
heavy to transport and difficult to make. Humus,
OTOH, are the
complex organic molecules which are very difficult for

bacteria to
break down, so they are what's left after a thorough
composting process.

If you use a pure hydroponic setup, CEC is not
necessary, but it does
add a great deal of stability to the system by acting
as a buffer for
nutrients.
I fully agree with the above. The question is: Will
humus added to regolith make a suitable soil? - TK
>[snip] I don't know which one will ultimately be
"better", and it may
be that one is better in one situation (e.g.,
composting on the
energy-poor surface of Mars) and another in another
situation (e.g.,
wet oxidation in an energy-rich orbital habitat).<

I'm sure that some combination will work better than
either
exclusively. I favor an approach of fast oxidation
for potentially
infectious materials and composting for other organic
wastes.

> I also have a request. Could you please say
"**CONTROLLED**
Ecological Life Support Systems instead of "Closed
Ecological...",
and moderate the "100% recycling and resource
reclamation" goal?<

By the time we start sending ships to other stars, I
expect getting as
close to 100% as possible will payback greatly in fuel

saved. Also,
Biosphere2 had a goal of exchanging the inside air
only once every 100
years but actually only managed to keep it to once a
day. I think it
behooves us to set the ultimate goals for research
high with the
understanding that intermediate goals will need to be
reached first.
Thus, the "closed ecology" is the goal which we strive

for with our
"controlled environments".

++JohnWheeler
I agree with the above as well. Te Green CELSS Task
FORCE is going for complete closure so that we have a
baseline from which to work. After achieving complete
closure, anything less than that is relatively easy. -
TK
P.S. I seriously doubt Terry is actually reading this

message, as he
posted AFAICT the exact same messages on at least one

=====
Terry Ryan Kok - scientist, ecotechnician, wizard
Elf Lore Family ELDER - Sanctuary Rock facilitator
Green CELSS Task Force focalizer
Starlight Technology: (812) 275-0694
biostar_a@...