Browsing by Author "Boscheri, Giorgio"
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Item Biocontamination Integrated Control of Wet Systems for Space Exploration (BIOWYSE)(48th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2018-07-08) Guarnieri, Vincenzo; Detsis, Emmanuel; Locantore, Ilaria; Lobascio, Cesare; Boscheri, Giorgio; Marchitelli, Giovanni; Simons, Richard; Pagan, JenniferControl of microbiological contamination within spacecraft is of huge importance for long-duration manned space missions: such systems must guarantee crew well-being, health, and subsistence. The development of materials and methods to prevent, monitor, and mitigate environmental microbial contamination and its harmful effects are thus required. Considering the application of such systems to spacecraft, possible solutions must be safe, automated, lightweight, reliable, efficient, and require minimal energy, consumables, maintenance, etc. The “Biocontamination Integrated Control of Wet Systems for Space Exploration” (BIOWYSE) project focuses on the development and demonstration of a compact, integrated, and automated solution (hardware & software) to biocontamination control. The BIOWYSE system is designed to prevent, monitor, and mitigate the risk of microbiological contamination in water systems and humid surfaces onboard ISS and in future human space exploration missions. Automation and synergy of these processes lead to reduction in crew time, decreased energy requirements, procedure simplification, and additional safety measures. Prevention and real-time monitoring, together with an appropriate control system, can reduce the decontamination effort requirement and radically improve efficiency. The BIOWYSE system and its subsystems, modules, and operational modes are described in this paper.Item Biocontamination Integrated Control of Wet Systems for Space Exploration (BIOWYSE) – Testing campaign results(49th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2019-07-07) Locantore, Ilaria; Boscheri, Giorgio; Guarnieri, Vincenzo; Marchitelli, Giovanni; Saverino, Antonio; Lobascio, CesareControl of microbiological contamination within spacecraft is of huge importance for long-duration manned space missions: such systems must guarantee crew well-being, health, and subsistence. The development of materials and methods to prevent, monitor, and mitigate environmental microbial contamination and its harmful effects are thus required. Considering the application of such systems to spacecraft, possible solutions must be safe, automated, lightweight, reliable, efficient, and require minimal energy, consumables, maintenance. This paper reports about BIOWYSE (Biocontamination Integrated Control of Wet Systems for Space Exploration), a project that focuses on the development and demonstration of a compact, integrated, and automated solution (hardware & software) for biocontamination control. The BIOWYSE system is designed to prevent, monitor, and mitigate the risk of microbiological contamination in water systems and humid surfaces onboard ISS and in future human space exploration missions. Automation and synergy of these processes lead to reduction in crew time, decreased energy requirements, procedure simplification, and additional safety measures. Prevention and real-time monitoring, together with an appropriate control system, can reduce the decontamination effort requirement and radically improve efficiency. The BIOWYSE system design and testing campaign results are described in this paper.Item EDEN ISS Rack-like food production unit: results after mission in Antarctica(49th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2019-07-07) Boscheri, Giorgio; Lobascio, Cesare; Zabel, Paul; Marchitelli, Giovanni; Saverino, AntonioPlant cultivation in large-scale closed environments is challenging and several key technologies necessary for space-based plant production are not yet space-qualified or remain in early stages of development. The Horizon2020 EDEN ISS project aims at development and demonstration of higher plant cultivation technologies, suitable for near term deployment on the International Space Station (ISS) and, in a longer term perspective, within Moon and Mars habitats. The EDEN ISS consortium, as part of the performed activities, has designed and built a plant cultivation system having form, fit and function of a European Drawer Rack 2 (EDR II) payload, with a modularity that would allow its incremental installation in the ISS homonymous rack, occupying from one-quarter rack to the full system. The developed system, named RUCOLA (Rack-like Unit for Consistent on-orbit Leafy crops Availability) was completed and tested in a laboratory environment in early 2017. The system was then operated in the highly-isolated German Antarctic Neumayer Station III, in a container-sized test facility to provide realistic mass flow relationships and interaction with a crewed environment. This paper describes the key results of the RUCOLA plant growth facility tests in Antarctica as a space-analogue environment.Item Introducing EDEN ISS - A European project on advancing plant cultivation technologies and operations(45th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2015-07-12) Zabel, Paul; Bamsey, Matthew; Zeidler, Conrad; Vrakking, Vincent; Johannes, Bernd-Wolfgang; Rettberg, Petra; Schubert, Daniel; Romberg, Oliver; Imhof, Barbara; Davenport, Robert; Hoheneder, Waltraut; Waclavicek, René; Gilbert, Chris; Hogle, Molly; Battistelli, Alberto; Stefanoni, Walter; Moscatello, Stefano; Proietti, Simona; Santi, Gugliemo; NAzzaro, Filomena; Fratianni, Florinda; Coppola, Raffaele; Dixon, Mike; Stasiak, Mike; Kohlberg, Eberhard; Mengedoht, Dirk; Bucchieri, Lorenzo; Mazzoleni, Erik; Fetter, Viktor; Hummel, Thomas; Boscheri, Giorgio; Massobrio, Federico; Lamantea, Matteo; Lobascio, Cesare; Petrini, Alessandro; Adami, Marco; Bonzano, Giuseppe; Fiore, Lorenzo; Dueck, Tom; Stanghellini, Cecilia; Bochenek, Grazyna; Gilley, Anthony; McKeon-Bennett, Michelle; Stutte, Gary; Larkin, Tracey; Moane, Siobhan; Murray, Patrick; Downey, Peter; Fortezza, Raimondo; Ceriello, AntonioPlant cultivation in large-scale closed environments is challenging and several key technologies necessary for space-based plant production are not yet space-qualified or remain in early stages of development. The EDEN ISS project foresees development and demonstration of higher plant cultivation technologies, suitable for future deployment on the International Space Station and from a long-term perspective, within Moon and Mars habitats. The EDEN ISS consortium will design and test essential plant cultivation technologies using an International Standard Payload Rack form factor cultivation system for potential testing on-board the International Space Station. Furthermore, a Future Exploration Greenhouse will be designed with respect to future planetary bio-regenerative life support system deployments. The technologies will be tested in a laboratory environment as well as at the highly-isolated German Antarctic Neumayer Station III. A small and mobile container-sized test facility will be built in order to provide realistic mass flow relationships. In addition to technology development and validation, food safety and plant handling procedures will be developed. This paper describes the goals and objectives of EDEN ISS and the different project phases and milestones. Furthermore, the project consortium will be introduced and the role of each partner within the project is explained.Item Main Performance Results of the EDEN ISS Rack-Like Plant Growth Facility(47th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2017-07-16) Boscheri, Giorgio; Lamantea, Matteo Maria; Lobascio, Cesare; Volponi, Marco; Schubert, Daniel; Zabel, PaulItem PFPU -- Microgravity Precursor Food Production Unit development status(51st International Conference on Environmental Systems, 7/10/2022) Boscheri, Giorgio; Marchitelli, Giovanni; Paille, Christel; Fili, ThomasSo far, several technical issues related to the development, implementation and operations of food production system for space applications were identified. They include food quality prediction, food safety, integration strategy as well as microbial contamination, humidity and nutrient delivery management. Thus, considering the amount of issues and their respective criticalities, the cost-conscious development of a food complement production unit for space application requires a step-by step approach based on a modular technological demonstrator. PFPU is a study of a modular food complement production unit demonstrator, aiming at a statistically representative production of edible tuberous plants in micro-gravity. The study is performed within the MELiSSA framework under contract with the European Space Agency. It is carried on by an Italian and Finnish consortium led by Thales Alenia Space Italia. Breadboards of the PFPU key subsystems have been designed, built and tested. The remaining subsystems breadboards have been designed and are now under manufacturing, in preparation for integrated system testing. This paper describes the PFPU development status and the associated roadmap.Item PFPU – Microgravity Precursor Food Production Unit development status(2023 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2023-07-16) Boscheri, Giorgio; Fili, Thomas; Marchitelli, Giovanni; Gerstenberg, Achim; Kristiansen, Kai Arne; Karoliussen, Irene; Jakobsen, Øyvind Mejdell; Paille, ChristelSo far, several technical issues related to the development, implementation and operations of food production system for space applications were identified. They include food quality prediction, food safety, integration strategy as well as microbial contamination, humidity and nutrient delivery management. Thus, considering the amount of issues and their respective criticalities, the cost-conscious development of a food complement production unit for space application requires a step-by step approach based on a modular technological demonstrator. PFPU is a study of a modular food complement production unit demonstrator, aiming at a statistically representative production of edible tuberous plants in micro-gravity. The study is performed within the MELiSSA framework under contract with the European Space Agency. It is carried on by an Italian and Norwegian consortium led by Thales Alenia Space Italia. The PFPU systems breadboard has been designed, built and tested. This paper describes the PFPU development status, the test campaign key results and the associated roadmap.Item PFPU � Microgravity Precursor Food Production Unit nutrient delivery system development status(50th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 7/12/2021) Boscheri, Giorgio; Marchitelli, Giovanni; Paille, ChristelSo far, several technical issues related to the development, implementation and operations of food production system for space applications were identified and include the food quality prediction, food safety, microbial population management, humidity management, nutrient delivery management, integration strategy. Thus, considering the number of issues and their respective criticality, the cost-conscious development of a food complement production unit for space application requires a step-by step approach based on a modular technological demonstrator. PFPU is a study of a modular food complement production unit demonstrator, aiming at a statistically representative production of edible tuberous plants in micro-gravity. The study is performed within the MELiSSA framework under contract with the European Space Agency, carried on by an Italian consortium led by Thales Alenia Space Italia. The PFPU key subsystems have been designed, built and are being tested. Among these key subsystems, the nutrient delivery system collected most of the study effort. The activities included development of new custom components as well as functional performance testing of Commercial Of the Shelf (COTS) equipment. This paper describes the nutrient delivery system as built and summarizes the key findings of the COTS test campaign.Item SCALISS: An European Tool for Automated Scaling of Life Support Systems(47th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2017-07-16) Boscheri, Giorgio; Guarnieri, Vincenzo; Chirico, Stefano; Zabel, Paul; Lasseur, ChristopheDesigning the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) for exploration missions to the interplanetary space is a complex task beginning from the definition of the needs (e.g. diet, safety, radiation level,..) up to the selection of technology possibilities. In this context a major issue is the influence of crew number and mission duration to the ECLSS design. These are the main reasons why during mission studies the design of the ECLSS system mostly starts from scratch. Uncertainties about requirements, functions and technologies most suitable for the mission lead to a high number of iterations before a baseline design can be achieved. The aim of the SCALISS study was to understand and investigate in ECLSS functionality, technologies and scalabilities in order to produce a robust initial design starting point for future Phase-A studies with an automated tool. The developed Java-based ECLSS sizing tool is described in this paper together with the validation case study results. The possible evolutions and interactions with the ALiSSE tool are also described.Item Status of the EDEN ISS Rack-like food production unit after five months in Antarctica(48th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2018-07-08) Boscheri, Giorgio; Volponi, Marco; Zabel, Paul; Marchitelli, GiovanniPlant cultivation in large-scale closed environments is challenging and several key technologies necessary for space-based plant production are not yet space-qualified or remain in early stages of development. The Horizon2020 EDEN ISS project aims at development and demonstration of higher plant cultivation technologies, suitable for near term deployment on the International Space Station (ISS) and from a long-term perspective, within Moon and Mars habitats. The EDEN ISS consortium, as part of the performed activities, has designed and built a plant cultivation system to have form, fit and function of an European Drawer Rack 2 (EDR II) payload, with a modularity that would allow its incremental installation in the ISS homonymous rack, occupying from one-quarter rack to the full system. The developed system has been completed and tested in a laboratory environment in early 2017. The system was then integrated and tested at DLR Bremen into the main transport container (MTF). In the last 5 months the system was operated also in the highly-isolated German Antarctic Neumayer Station III, in the container-sized test facility to provide realistic mass flow relationships and interaction with a crewed environment. This paper describes the key results of the Bremen test phase as well as initial ISPR plant growth facility tests in Antarctica as space-analogue environment.Item The EDEN ISS Rack-Like Plant Growth Facility(46th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2016-07-10) Boscheri, Giorgio; Lobascio, Cesare; Lamantea, Matteo Maria; Locantore, Ilaria; Guarnieri, Vincenzo; Schubert, DanielPlant cultivation in large-scale closed environments is challenging and several key technologies necessary for space-based plant production are not yet space-qualified or remain in early stages of development. The Horizon2020 EDEN ISS project aims at development and demonstration of higher plant cultivation technologies, suitable for near term deployment on the International Space Station (ISS) and from a long-term perspective, within Moon and Mars habitats. The EDEN ISS consortium, as part of the performed activities, has designed a plant cultivation system to have form, fit and function of an European Drawer Rack 2 (EDR II) payload, with a modularity that would allow its incremental installation in the ISS homonimous rack, occupying from one-quarter rack to the full system. The construction phase is started, and the developed system will be tested in a laboratory environment as well as at the highly-isolated German Antarctic Neumayer Station III, in a container-sized test facility to provide realistic mass flow relationships and interaction with a crewed environment. This paper describes the goals and system general design status of EDEN ISS ISPR plant growth facility.Item The MELiSSA GreenMOSS Preliminary Design Study: a Greenhouse Module on the Lunar Surface(46th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2016-07-10) Boscheri, Giorgio; Lobascio, Cesare; Lamantea, Matteo Maria; Paille, ChristelExtended human presence on an extraterrestrial planetary surface will be made possible by the development of life support systems affordable in the long term. The key elements to support the goal will be the maximization of closure of air and water cycles, as well as the development of cost-effective and reliable hardware, including a careful strategic effort toward reduction of spare parts and consumables. Regenerative life support systems likely represent the final step toward long term sustainability of a space crew, allowing in situ food production and regeneration of organic waste. Referring to the MELiSSA loop, a key element for food production is the Higher Plant Compartment. The paper focuses on the preliminary design of a Greenhouse at the lunar South Pole, as performed within the “Greenhouse Module for Space System” (GreenMOSS) study, under a contract from the European Space Agency. The greenhouse is in support to a relatively small crew for provision of an energetic food complement. Resources necessary for the greenhouse such as water, carbon dioxide and nitrates are assumed available, as required. The relevant mass and energy balances for incoming resources should be part of future studies, harmonizing this element with the interfacing compartments of the MELiSSA loop. The work presents the results of the study, focusing on the two major trade-offs: artificial vs natural illumination and monocrop vs multicrop solutions. Comparisons among possible design solutions were driven by the ALiSSE metric as far as practicable within this preliminary stage, considering mass and power parameters. Finally, the paper presents recommendations for future work, as emerged from the analysis of the results.Item The preliminary design of the EDEN ISS Mobile Test Facility - An Antarctic greenhouse(46th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2016-07-10) Zabel, Paul; Bamsey, Matthew; Zeidler, Conrad; Vrakking, Vincent; Schubert, Daniel; Romberg, Oliver; Boscheri, Giorgio; Dueck, TomEDEN ISS is a European project to investigate cultivation techniques of plants in space for future bioregenerative life support systems. The technologies will be tested in a laboratory environment as well as at the highly-isolated German Antarctic Neumayer Station III. A small and mobile container-sized test facility will be built in order to provide realistic mass flow relationships. This paper provides a summary of the activities performed in the design phase of the project. The design phase started with the kick-off meeting in March 2015 and focused on the requirements definition and design of the greenhouse. The EDEN ISS partners met for a design workshop from September 7th to September 18th 2015 in the Concurrent Engineering Facility of DLR’s Institute of Space Systems in Bremen, Germany. The purpose of the workshop was the generation of a preliminary design for the mobile test facility. The mobile test facility will be built later in the project and used to conduct an over one year long experiment campaign beginning in December 2017 in Antarctica. During the two week workshop, the consortium members worked on their respective subsystems and on how their systems can be integrated in the overall greenhouse. The design of each subsystem was greatly improved. System budgets (e.g. mass, power) were calculated, engineering drawings made and estimates with respect to inputs and outputs conducted. A very important step was the consolidation of the system and subsystem requirements. This paper summarizes the results of the design work-shop and describes the preliminary design of the EDEN ISS mobile test facility.Item Use of adsorbent photocatalytic materials for air revitalization in space closed environment(44th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2014-07-13) Grizzaffi, Lucia; Locantore, Ilaria; Pandi, Arianna; Boscheri, Giorgio; Lamantea, Matteo; Onida, Barbara; Loiacono, EleonoraThe Air Revitalization is one of the main objectives of the Life Support & Biotechnologies research of RecycLAB TASI Engineering Technological Area. A “small- scale” module mock up, called Athena, has been recently designed and realized for allowing the possibility to simulate a contaminated confined environment, as a crew cabin is, and test the efficiency of adsorbent materials within reactors of different shape specifically conceived. This paper deals with the synthesis, the characterization and the testing of Titania-containing porous silica (TiO2–SiO2) as trace gas traps. In particular, two post- synthesis methods of TiO2 incorporation inside mesoporous SBA-15 silica support have been selected. The obtained products have been characterized and compared from the chemical- physical and morphological points of view (by XRD, IR and UV-VIS spectroscopy, N2 adsorption, FESEM-EDS and DLS). The test campaign focused on the evaluation of the combined effect of photocatalytic and adsorbent properties for ethanol and dichloromethane removal in vapour phase by means of Athena. The VOCs concentration decrease over time was monitored by means of a FT-IR spectrometer for kinetic analysis, equipped with a temperature controlled gas cell connected to the mock up in a closed loop system.