International Space Station Environmental Control and Life Support System Mass and Crewtime Utilization In Comparison to a Long Duration Human Space Exploration Mission

摘要

Over the last two-and-a-half decades, the International Space Station’s (ISS) Environmental Control andLife Support System (ECLSS) has grown and evolved in size, complexity, and capability. The functions that itperforms today are many of those that will need to be performed in the future aboard spacecraft and habitatsthat will enable long duration human exploration missions to destinations beyond low earth orbit. Regardlessof the particular deep space destination, it is widely accepted that highly reliable ECLS systems that dependminimally on expendable equipment will be required. An important question, particularly in today’s fiscally-constrained environment, is how well suited is the ISS ECLSS suite of technologies to meeting the needs offuture missions? To help begin answering this question, the maintenance history of the ISS Water Recoveryand Oxygen Generation Systems has been surveyed. Equipment mass utilization rates, achieved hardwareoperating lifetimes, and crewtime spent on maintenance tasks have been tallied to provide a surrogate measureof reliability. These data are also compared to notional targets for a hypothetical three-year Mars mission.