Self-sufficient space station proposed
Yet another classic science fiction trope that real-world science is reaching towards: a team of scientists have come up with a design for a space station named "Luna Gaia" that works on similar principles to a biosphere - a "closed-loop" ecology where almost all waste products are recycled by the system. [Image credited to NASA]
The ISS runs on a type of closed-loop system already, but the recycling processes are largely based on chemical reactions; the biosphere design would use plants and algae instead, as far as is practically possible, and should be theoretically capable of sustaining twelve astronauts for three years. The diet sounds a bit dull, though …
October 10th, 2007 at 8:29 am
You might be interested in a blog posting “Gardening in microgravity”: http://cabiblog.typepad.com/hand_picked/2007/10/gardening-in-mi.html
October 10th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Oh, man! When you mentioned the dull diet, you had me hoping they were going to eat algae cakes.