New Mars

David S. F. Portree provides a fascinating account of the Lunar-Mars Life Support Test Project carried out in 1997, in which four NASA scientists lived in an air-tight life support chamber for ninety days to gather data for extended human missions in space.

Nigel Packham left England at age 24 to become an astronaut. Now 37, he’s completed two missions many believe vital for future Mars exploration. Yet, during neither his fifteen-day solo nor his record-breaking 91-day stint commanding a crew of four did he leave Building 7 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston.

The Lunar-Mars Life Support Test Project volunteers served mainly as “metabolic loads” - that is, their job was to inhale, exhale, eat and drink…

Packham, a Ph.D. chemist, works at the heart of a NASA-wide team experimenting with regenerative (recycling) life support systems. From August 1995 to December 1997, the Lunar-Mars Life Support Test Project team conducted four closed-chamber human tests in three phases. In Phase I (August 1995), Packham spent fifteen days alone with 22,000 dwarf wheat plants in a 10-foot sealed chamber. The wheat recycled carbon dioxide he exhaled, turning it into oxygen he breathed. He served as a backup to the four-person crew of Phase II (June-July 1996) - a test of physicochemical (that is, non-living machines and chemistry) life support recycling in a 20-foot-diameter chamber - and again for Phase IIa (January-March 1997), which trialed International Space Station physicochemical life support equipment. In Phase III (September-December 1997), he commanded a crew of four for a test of biological and physicochemical regenerative life support systems working in concert.

Why does NASA consider these tests important little steps to Mars? It all comes down to reducing mass. For example, the agency calculates that, without recycling, each astronaut will use about 10.6 tons of water per year, so the water needed by a crew of four during a three-year Mars expedition might mass 127.5 tons - heavier than the whole piloted spacecraft in NASA’s current baseline Mars plan. “Regenerative life support is a critical enabling technology for the future of humans in space,” says Don Henninger, Chief Scientist for the Lunar-Mars Life Support Test Project. “Without it, trips to Mars are simply impossible. You just cannot carry all of the supplies needed for such voyages without recycling.”

The Lunar-Mars Life Support Test Project volunteers served mainly as “metabolic loads” - that is, their job was to inhale, exhale, drink, urinate, eat, and defecate to place realistic demands on regenerative life support systems. Secondly, they maintained the machinery inside the chamber and took part in “collaborative investigations” piggybacked on the tests. Among other things, these long-term studies judged the effectiveness of the exercise routine developed for International Space Station astronauts and assessed long-term health effects of iodine NASA uses as a biocide to safeguard potable water.

Main responsibility for Phase III chamber systems fell to system technicians Laura Supra, 28, and John Lewis, 30. Laura works on life support at Allied Signal Corporation in California, while John’s desk faces Nigel’s at JSC. Before Phase III, Laura was a chamber rookie, while John was a tech in the 30-day Phase II test (June-July 1996). Both are married - John and his wife became parents a month after Phase III concluded.

Vickie Kloeris, 42, coordinated the collaborative investigations in Phase III. In “real life” Vickie is NASA’s space shuttle food system manager. In January 1997, she volunteered with Nigel, John, Laura, and forty others from around the country to join the Phase III test crew. In March, the Lunar-Mars Life Support Test Project selection committee chose Vickie and 17 others for physical examinations and psychological tests. She became one of the four prime crewmembers on June 6, 1997. “I think my husband was surprised when I made it through to the final selection,” she says. “It dawned on him then that I’d be gone for three months,” she laughs.

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Home for 91 Days

The crew could watch its watchers - a TV facing their table had one channel set to a camera trained on the control room. Says Nigel, “It’s our favorite TV channel.”

Vickie’s husband was among the more than 300 well-wishers gathered in the Building 7 highbay to see off the Phase III crew. Many wore white and red “Mars or Bust” buttons. Nigel, Vickie, Laura, and John wore their buttons on matching blue-and-white-striped Phase III jerseys.

The crowd applauded as the crew entered the 20-foot vacuum chamber dominating the highbay. Built in 1964 to support America’s drive for the moon, “the Can,” as it’s known, is an upright brown cylinder surrounded by a labyrinth of pipes, tanks and wires. In the Can’s first long-duration test in 1972, three rookie astronauts lived inside for fifty-six days to gather baseline medical data for the long-duration Skylab flights. For the next two decades NASA focused on short-duration shuttle flights, so no new long-duration tests occurred until John and his Phase II crewmates went inside in 1996.

Nigel, Laura, John and Vickie helped from inside as engineers outside secured the heavy hatch. Officially, the hatch was supposed stay shut for the next 90 days. But the crew hoped to stay inside for 91 days - long enough to break the 90-day U.S. record for life support testing set in the late sixties. With the hatch sealed, the airlock became the crew’s health club. Thirteen days out of fourteen they ran, pumped iron and peddled their way through an International Space Station-type exercise regimen. Even so, they expected to lose muscle mass during their confinement.

They passed into Level 1, coming into range of the two steerable cameras trained on their multipurpose table. They appeared on two of the five TVs in the control room just outside the chamber. The crew could watch its watchers - a TV facing their table had one channel set to a camera trained on the control room. Says Nigel, “It’s our favorite TV channel.”

Level 1 also contained the chamber’s galley, with sink, counter (”too small,” says Vickie), two microwaves, refrigerator and bread machine. A compartment packed with water recycling machinery separates the galley from the bathroom, which contained no flush toilet. Feces went into plastic screw-top “jiffy jars” for analysis or into bags for disposal. The crew periodically sent these out of the chamber through a small transfer airlock. Crewmembers collected their urine in beakers, measured and sampled it, then poured it down a funnel into the water recycling system.

In the name of mass reduction each crewmember was allotted less than two gallons of water each day for washing. That’s “about the same amount of water you pour down the sink if you leave the faucet running while you brush your teeth,” says Nigel. Usually each crewmember showered after their two-hour exercise session. To prepare for the quick showers, Vickie, John, and Laura cut their hair short before entering the chamber. Nigel kept five baseball caps to hide his hair. “Every day is a bad hair day in the chamber,” he explained.

Movement on a third TV screen in the control room - John and Laura have climbed the stair-ladder to Level 2. It’s a single 20-ft-diameter room that contains air recycling machinery, an exercise bike, a workshop/lab and a freezer for the urine, blood, feces and bacterial cultures the crew collected during the test.

On Level 3 each crewmember had a 50-square-foot cabin bunk, bookcase, clothes locker and desk. The desk held a computer with internet videoconferencing capability. “We have great communication capabilities inside the chamber,” enthused Laura. “Normally I talk to my spouse [in California] daily.”

Each cabin had another important feature - a sliding door. According to Laura, private time was precious during the test. The crew worked eighty-hour weeks. For her, that included twenty hours of maintenance and equipment monitoring, twenty hours of collaborative investigations, and ten hours each of public outreach and answering email. She also spent about fifteen hours a week keeping up with her normal job in California.

The chamber’s interior feels and sounds like the heart of a big machine - which, of course, it is. During the test, sound insulation lining the walls only partly muted the rumble of compressors, fans and pumps. That came home to the crew on Day 27 (October 15) of the test, when JSC suffered a power outage. Says Laura: “The amazing thing we noticed was how quiet the chamber was with all the systems off.” The crew found their way to flashlights by light from their battery-powered laptops. After fifteen minutes power came back. With aid from the control room the crew reactivated all systems, and the test continued.

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First Harvests

Barta compares the first Mars expedition to a “backpacking trip” carrying freeze-dried food.

The chamber was the heart of the test, but Phase III extended literally across the country. Nutrient solution manufactured in a vat-like stirred-tank bioreactor at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, for example, was used to feed 22,000 wheat plants growing without soil in the same 10-foot-chamber Nigel called home during Phase I. The nutrient solution started as chafe from an earlier generation of wheat grown in the chamber.

Similarly, NASA’s Ames Research Center in California managed the University of Utah’s development of an incinerator for reducing the crew’s feces to carbon dioxide and water vapor, which was piped to the wheat chamber. The crew ate bread made from the wheat in their bread machine, defecated, and the cycle continued. In Phase III, the wheat was also part of the air system - it converted some of the carbon dioxide exhaled by the crew into enough oxygen for one person.

The USU-Apogee wheat in the 10-foot was developed by another of NASA’s academic partners, Utah State University. A dwarf variety bred for large kernels and rapid growth, Apogee hits maturity in less than 80 days. These qualities are important for growing food in a small space, such as a martian greenhouse.

Dan Barta was horticulturist for the Lunar-Mars Life Support Test Project. He doesn’t expect space farms soon because NASA can pack enough freeze-dried food for several years and still account for only a few percent of a small fraction of a Mars spacecraft’s total mass. Barta compares the first Mars expedition to a “backpacking trip” carrying freeze-dried food. “I see at least in our near future that using plants will be limited to a small vegetable growth unit,” Barta says, adding that even a small number of plants will have both dietary and psychological benefits.

The Phase III crew harvested enough leaf lettuce for salads every ten days from just such a small plant growth unit, the refrigerator-sized GARDEN. They planted their first lettuce seeds on Day 7 (September 25) and had their first fresh salads on Day 14 (October 2). Blue and red LEDs provided only light frequencies lettuce plants actually use, cutting waste heat and improving energy efficiency - important considerations aboard a spacecraft. The fast-growing plants were “the only things in the chamber that change besides our hair length,” said Vickie.

Given that near-term large-scale use of plants in space isn’t likely, some have questioned the emphasis NASA’s life support program places on them. The National Research Council (NRC) report Advanced Technology for Human Support in Space stated last summer that NASA spends too large a fraction of its scarce life support research funds on plants. The annual budget for advanced life support is less than $20 million. Sue Doll, chair of the subcommittee that drafted the report, says that “NASA’s life support work is strapped for budget and faces many challenges.” She stresses that the report doesn’t oppose plant research; however, “Because money is an issue, we recommended more emphasis on developing a suite of physicochemical technologies.” These are needed, Doll says, to support and back up biological systems.

Barta acknowledges that, “We’ll always be reliant on physicochemical systems because they’ll be an essential backup.” He defends NASA’s research program, however. “As far as biological systems, there’s a lot we need to do to understand them. Physicochemical systems are at a higher level of readiness.” But Doll believes that critical advances must be made in physicochemical technology. “Life support systems flown today are little advanced over those from the days of Skylab in the early 1970s,” he says.

Don Henninger says that NASA is putting in place almost all of the NRC’s recommendations, including adjusting the physicochemical/biological balance. However, he says, “In the long-term outlook, there’s really no way to achieve a reasonable level of independence from resupply from Earth without growing plants. We can address this through a many-year effort - and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

Phase III underscored the need for more work on food plants. Barta’s team planned their first wheat harvest for early October, but one planting suffered a fungal root infestation and had to be replaced. Fire damaged the incinerator on Day 29 (October 17), dealing a blow to efforts toward solid waste recovery. The first wheat harvest finally took place on Day 38 (October 26). The next day the crew ate bread made from wheat partly grown from their own exhalations and feces.

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Bioprocessors

“We saw an opportunity, since we were in the ninety-day test and things were going very smoothly, to offer the station this technology to get us ready to go to Mars quicker. It’s a two-fer - for the same amount of money you get a station life support system and what you need for Mars.”

Nigel has few qualms about biological life support systems. “Having spent 15 days in very close quarters with 22,000 wheat plants that kept me alive [during Phase I], I developed a very healthy respect for things biological,” he says.

Nigel’s involvement in biological systems dates from 1991, when he helped launch bacterial water processor development at JSC. At that time, few nuts-and-bolts spacecraft engineers wanted bacteria in their designs. “When we first started this, I was pretty skeptical,” says Wil Ellis, Chief of the Crew and Thermal Systems Division at JSC, which runs the Lunar-Mars Life Support Test Project. “But we’ve been testing these for four or five years, and we’ve never had an upset.” Water recycling in the Phase III test depended on two bioprocessors, tall glass columns with gooey brown interiors. Bacteria in the first converted organic material from urine and wash water into carbon dioxide and water. The second converted ammonia into nitrate salts. Bioprocessors require no resupply after they begin operating because the bacteria reproduce themselves.

In late October, Ellis entered the control room and called Nigel and John to the table on Level 1. “Just wanted to let you know that the space station program has given us $2 million for research into biological water processing in Node 3,” he said. On the TV, John patted Nigel on the back.

Node 3 is a life support module planned for launch to the International Space Station in 2003. The current design includes physicochemical water processors tested during Phase IIa. They expend 1,250 pounds of filters and 1,000 pounds of water each year, so replacing the physicochemical system with bioprocessors will save mass. However, that’s not critical for station - it’s designed for resupply every ninety days by a visiting space shuttle anyway.

No, what excites the team is that building a bioprocessor for Node 3 will help prepare the way for Mars, where resupply is much more difficult. As Ellis explains: “We saw an opportunity, since we were in the ninety-day test and things were going very smoothly, to offer the station this technology to get us ready to go to Mars quicker. It’s a two-fer - for the same amount of money you get a station life support system and what you need for Mars.” The team hopes to test a bioprocessor in weightlessness for the first time on a shuttle flight this December. A go/no-go decision on the Node 3 bioprocessor must come from station management by January next year.

October was an important month for NASA water policy for another reason. The agency uses iodine as a biocide in space shuttle drinking water and plans to use it on the International Space Station. According to John, it turned ice cubes into brown “iodine popsicles” and had “a strong chlorine taste.” Throughout the Lunar-Mars Life Support Test Project, medical researchers tested crew blood to determine long-term effects of drinking iodine-laced water. Early in Phase III they detected minor thyroid irregularities. On Day 30 (October 18), NASA decided to filter iodine before it reaches crews. John and Laura installed filters on the Can’s three sinks.

This good news was well timed for Nigel, who needed some encouragement in late October. Nigel likes his red meat and butter, but for ten days the Phase III crew ate only dishes made from crops that might be grown in a Martian greenhouse, such as wheat, white potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, and radishes.

This diet will be standard fare in the Bioregenerative Planetary Life Support Systems Test Complex (BIOPlex), an advanced facility NASA hopes will replace the 20-foot chamber in year 2000. BIOPlex, a 63-foot central corridor with six attached modules, will aspire to demonstrate self-sufficiency. Terry Tri leads the BIOPlex effort at JSC and commanded the Phase IIa crew. He points out that the Can is a “hand-me-down” from earlier days, so is limited in what it can do. His stay in the 20-foot “enriched my thoughts on BIOPlex - I have a much deeper understanding of what we need to pay attention to.” If all goes as planned, BIOPlex crews will benefit from Tri’s experience when they simulate a 425-day Mars stay in about 2004.

Halloween fell near the end of the crew’s ten meatless days. One crew psychologist passed in costumes. Laura was Bat Girl, while Nigel became British secret agent Austin Powers. John became Ro-Man (a creature from a B-movie the crew watched with the control room), and Vickie dressed as a cow. “Some beef is starting to sound really good right now,” muttered Nigel, as he digitally photographed Vickie for the Phase III website.

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The Turning Point

“You kept four people and 22,000 wheat plants alive for 91 days. The question was,” he noted, “‘Can we keep people alive on the surface of Mars using biological life support systems?’ It’s not the question anymore. The question is: ‘When?’”

The Phase III control room log for Day 69 (November 26) shows that the incinerator was still down after its fire, but the wheat was doing well, and the bioprocessors were bubbling along like champs. It also reports that the crew was “silly and ridiculous as usual.” It’s a trivial remark, but it signifies an important victory for NASA psychologists.

Halfway through the 84-day Skylab 4 mission in 1973-74, misunderstandings between mission control and overworked crew flared into the first space sit-down strike. Spaceflight managers used to accommodating the needs of machines had to start thinking about the needs of crews operating the machines.

According to crew psychologist Al Holland, NASA has studied the psychology of long-duration missions aboard submarines and in Antarctica since Skylab. As they accumulated experience on the effects of isolation and confinement, their purpose shifted. “We see our role not as scientific, but as operational,” he explains. “We’re not here to study crew reactions. Our goal is to make this test work.” Holland and his colleagues played the same role when Americans lived on Mir for up to six months.

Crew selection and pre-mission training are vital to mission success, Holland says, adding that “About 75 percent of what I do occurs before the mission begins.” A sense of humor is one of fourteen crew selection criteria. During training the psychologists brief crews on ways of maintaining team cohesion, but it’s “better if they come from the crew.” “We plant the mischievous seeds and then let them grow,” he says, smiling. For example, take Movie Night, a crew invention. Every Wednesday after supper throughout the test ,crew and control room gathered around their TVs to watch a videotape together. Of course, one purpose was simple entertainment. But Movie Night was also designed to avoid future Skylab 4s by bringing crew inside and team outside together to share a common experience.

The psychologists arranged a party halfway through the test. The control room organized one on Day 61 (November 18), when the crew beat the chamber endurance record set during Phase IIa. (Terry Tri and the rest of the Phase IIa crew sent a symbolic “key to the chamber” in through the transfer lock.) The control room also organized a surprise baby shower for John and his wife Laura. The STS-86 and STS-87 shuttle crews visited the crew before leaving Earth, then spoke with them from low-Earth orbit. The crew received astronaut candidates who might one day walk on Mars, and a surprise phone call from NASA Administrator Dan Goldin on Thanksgiving Day. Similar diversions will probably help keep Mars-bound crews sane. But Holland admits that psychologists still have work to do to prepare for Mars expeditions lasting years. “Ninety days is the turning point - the beginning of the long-duration challenge,” he says.

Day 90 (December 17) was Phase III’s final Movie Night. To celebrate Christmas, the main attraction was Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Then crew and control room joined in singing Christmas carol parodies. To the tune of “Jingle Bells” they sang of jiffy jars, their least-favorite fecal containment method. The mood was even more upbeat than usual, for in just thirty-six hours the heavy hatch would swing back and the crew emerge to see sunlight again.

The morning of December 19 marked the end of Day 91. A good shower heedless of water use and the crew was ready to face family, friends, VIPs and TV cameras. The “Mars or Bust” buttons swarmed in the Building 7 highbay once again. The kind of shouting and applause reserved for rock stars erupted as the crew emerged. Vickie cradled the nephew born since she went inside. John hugged his wife.

Then Nigel stepped to the microphone to thank his team mates for their around-the-clock work. “You kept four people and 22,000 wheat plants alive for 91 days. The question was,” he noted, “‘Can we keep people alive on the surface of Mars using biological life support systems?’ It’s not the question anymore. The question is: ‘When?’”

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Epilogue

Since the 90-day test concluded in December 1997, no new tests have occurred in the 20-foot chamber. Instead, work has accelerated on BIO-Plex. The facility is currently expected to support four-person crews during tests lasting up to 540 days - the approximate duration of a Mars surface stay. No firm date has been set for the first BIO-Plex test, but a workshop to define test goals took place in February, 1999.

Written by David S. F. Portree.

Related Links:

NASA JSC Advanced Life Support homepage

Filed under: Articles on August 7th, 2001