NSS Space Settlement Journal publishes space agricultupaper

The NSS Space Settlement Journalis an online, peer-reviewed, open access journal on all aspects of space settlement and activities leading to space settlement. We encourage you to submit a paper!The newly published paper is in two parts.Both may be found athttp://www.nss.org/settlement/journal/ This paper is particularly important as it is becoming clear that agriculture will impact the overall design of space settlements more than we have believed.Towards Closed Environmental Control and Life Support for Space Habitats Part I: A Basic System. Richard J. Soilleux. July 2017Food production will be essential for long-term occupation of any space habitat as part of an efficient environmental control and life support system (ECLSS). A credible basis for an artificial hybrid ecosystem is described with both biological and mechanical components capable of providing a varied though limited balanced diet and recycling nutrients. Hydroponic growing methods are proposed with the accumulated biomass treated to recycle nutrients. The optimum mix of plant species is not known but some possibilities are offered for consideration. A fully closed ECLSS is probably impossible and hydrogen oxygen nitrogen and carbon lost from airlocks will have to be replaced.Towards Closed Environmental Control and Life Support for Space Habitats Part II: Reduced Risk and Increased Efficiency with Biological Systems.Richard J. Soilleux. July 2017.The basic ECLSS modeled and described in Part I is extended using biological systems to reduce risk and increase efficiency. Value is extracted from waste biomass to provide ~50% of high quality human food while reducing the hydroponics growing area by 28%. Carbon recycling with biological systems is now 99% with reliance on SCWO limited to 1%. Haber/Bosch ammonia synthesis has been retained as the best method for replacing fixed nitrogen lost during recycling. Large amounts of water evaporated and recycled each day offer a convenient way to remove waste heat from growing areas, allowing high light levels in compact units. A difficult ethical question is whether human corpses should be recycled or buried elsewhere.