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Loading contentLife support that uses living systems — plants and microbes — to recycle air, water, and waste and to grow food, moving toward the closed ecosystems that long missions far from Earth will need.
Life support that recycles resources with living systems.
The goal of a fully regenerative life-support system, in which plants and microbes recycle essentially all of the air, water, and waste — the closed ecosystem that a self-sufficient Mars base would require. Ground experiments such as BIOS-3 and MELiSSA have pursued it.
Growing plants in space — for fresh food, for recycling air and water, and for crew morale. Experiments aboard the ISS have grown and eaten space-grown crops, a step toward the farms that Moon and Mars crews will need.
The engineered system that feeds a crew — shelf-stable, nutritious food packaged for weightlessness, planned to sustain health and morale over long missions where resupply is limited or impossible.
Facts on this topic will be cited from these primary and reference sources.
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.