Simulation Study of Environmental Control and Life Support System Design for Deep Space Exploration

With Japan participating in the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G) program, expectations to use the LOP-G as an advanced base to open the door to deep space will increase and further destinations for human spaceflight will likely to be planned. This derives the need to design an environmental control and life support system (ECLSS) that can withstand a long duration mission without resupplies. In particular, an atmosphere revitalization (AR) subsystem and a water recovery and management (WRM) subsystem require highly reliable architectures with higher regeneration rates than ones currently operating in the International Space Station (ISS), as well as an environmental monitoring and control subsystem demands advanced technologies with great efficiency. We have worked for years to develop SICLE (SImulator for Closed Life and Ecology), a software to design and simulate ECLSS models, based on the knowledge of ECLSS simulations at the Closed Ecology Experiment Facilities (CEEF) in Japan. In addition, our recent research and development of ECLSS assemblies including carbon dioxide removal, oxygen generator and water recovery and management with JAXA has contributed largely to the development of SICLE. This paper discusses the results of the ECLSS simulation analyses using SICLE especially on water/air revitalization, temperature, humidity, and CO2 concentration control of the space habitat currently designed for deep space exploration.