The Effects of Fluctuations in Plant Growth Rate on Material Circulation in ECLSS

An Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) is an essential system for living in outer space. Beyond low-Earth orbit, where resupply becomes more difficult, it is necessary to regenerate and circulate more of the materials in the system. To increase the regeneration rate of substances from the current level and close the material circulation, a hybrid system of physicochemical and bioregenerative processes will become essential. One of the major problems with bioregenerative processing is the uncertainty of the processing amount. In this paper, we focus on plant cultivation as a method of food production, oxygen regeneration, and carbon dioxide reduction. We calculated the changes in input and output amounts by changing the plant growth rate of a plant growth model. As a result, there is a large impact on the material circulation environment, and it is necessary to design physicochemical treatment equipment that can absorb these effects.