For Artemis missions exceeding 120 days, NASA astronauts will need a completely regenerative life support system in Lunar and Martian habitation modules. Traditional physical-chemical life support systems have over 40 years of use aboard ISS and are ideal for short duration missions where hardware size and volume aren’t available. However, these systems are not regenerable, as constant resupply is required to maintain ISS through the resupply of nitrogen and oxygen (NORS), urine pretreat, water volumes, food (calories and nutrients), and food production (fertilizer, seeds). Nor are ISS physical-chemical systems sustainable as brine, fecal, and trash are either tossed overboard or returned to Earth. NASA’s trade studies have demonstrated that a bioregenerative life support system (BLiSS) becomes more beneficial and cost effective for mission architectures exceeding 120 days. The NASA 2023 Decadal Survey also reconfirms this approach, as the National Academies clearly states that NASA needs to invest in bioregenerative life support and manufacturing in space (biomanufacturing and 3D printing).

Previous work in BLiSS has been performed by several Centers within the Agency through funding by the Mars Campaign Office (MCO), Advanced Exploration Systems (AES), Science Mission Directorate (SMD), and Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) programs. BLiSS has developed a series of bioreactors with the University of South Florida that consume different waste streams as an alternate feedstock to produce various value-added products for supporting life. This approach reduces logistics reduction by consuming waste, converts the waste into its basic elemental forms, and feeds those elements to microbes or plants to produce products needed for space flight. One reactor converts fecal waste into fertilizer for plants, while separate reactors convert wastewater into drinking water, another into oxygen, and a fourth into biomanufactured products like sugar, edible algae, and beta xanthan. Researchers at Texas Tech (TTU) and JSC have developed a urine treatment bioreactor, and researchers at ARC have developed small batch bioreactors for testing microorganisms in space. Through the SBIR program, Pancopia has been funded to develop a bioreactor to convert treated wastewater from the Texas Tech bioreactor into nitrogen gas. Combining these efforts into a single BLiSS architecture would make a huge step forward in building a sustainable habitation ECLSS system.

Bioregenerative Life Support is an enabling technology platform that integrates regenerable biological systems to convert waste streams into value-added products. This reduces the logistics reduction of flight systems by converting waste into products for other habitation systems. The production of valuable resources from wastewater greatly reduces resupply needed to support habitation. Additionally, the product water can be used towards biomanufacturing products that can only be done in off-world habitats to create a sustainable lunar/Martian economy.