Water Table in a Habitat

Also, as this is a closed
systems, you could also use remote sensors to
determine the health of the fields similar to
something of a landsat's thermatic mapper
functionality and tie this into the water management
system. Oh, OK. Yeah, I could imagine some thermatic mapping going on much more easily than I could imagine a sensor under every tree, bush, or shrub in several square miles of countryside. I am not optimistic that a true closed system could
ever retain all the water. Some water will be lost
eventually. How will a closed system collect water
excreted from sweat glands? Will we all be forced to
wear stilsuits (ala dune)? Will we drain the water
from dead people? Where would the water go? Unless the habitat shell is a permeable membrane (which it shouldn't be) the water will still be inside the habitat, regardless of its location. It will be necessary to cool habitats with heat radiators, and these radiators will inevitably reclaim huge amounts of condensed water. This will be the water evaporated off the surfaces of ponds and streams, given off by plants via transpiration, and evaporated sweat (but that will be avery small percentage of the total). I doubt that any truly significant amounts of water would wind up "locked away" from the ecology in the form of dead bodies. But a person who had concerns about this might opt for a biodegradable casket, or better yet, cremation. When people leave the habitat, must
they leave behind all water? People will be entering and leaving the habitat all of the time. Those entering will bring a certain amount of water with them that they will leave behind. On the other hand, they'll take some other water with them when they leave. It'll come pretty close to balancing out. Now I know hydrogen and oxygen exist throughout the
universe, (especially when you get out towards the
kuiper belt area) but I am not confident in the early
days of an o'niel habitat (those being the ones in the
inner solar system) that we will be able to take
advantage of those resources or be able to survive in
a true closed loop environment system. You may not be aware that SSI has funded a bit of CLLSS work. They seem to consider the water cycle to be a pieceof cake compared to the nitrogen cycle. Heck, we still haven't been able to successfully run a
closed-loop biosphere here on earth. much less in
space! Don't get too discouraged by the failings of Biosphere II. Humanity's first few attempts at heavier-than-air flight were not successful either, and Biosphere II was the first significant, large-scale attempt.