2009 Annual Meeting of LEAG (2009) 2045.pdf
Are Living Systems the Key to Sustainable Lunar Exploration? R. R. Zimmerman, Symbiotek Systems (Portola Valley, CA; [email protected])
Introduction: Elements of sustainability in planners to reduce risks and costs while defining science, operations and politics, should be incorporated systems requirements for future missions. Space into long range planning for Lunar Exploration [1]. Biology holds the key to space based living systems. Before lunar exploration (on, of, and from the Moon) can enter a sustainable phase it must first experience a Biology: growth phase. Alternative definitions for Space Biology: Biology (Human - effects & sustainability, models and metrics for sustainability, countermeasures, cellular or plant systems used in a and a survey of analogs should be acquired, analyzed closed ecological environmental support system and synthesized. - leading to recommendations for (CELSS)) may hold the key to sustainable lunar further research and a timeline for refinement. exploration - both in terms of public support and Exploration in the national interest [2, 3] also offers a operational efficiencies for life support. It is still an broad set of development perspectives with the insight open question as to whether humans can truly live on of greater payback from longer duration or more other worlds [5] – not merely for days, weeks of intensively populated missions. The issues of Living months but for extended duration missions of years – Systems and Sustainable Exploration span the possible much less permanently in long term settlements. The mission option space – whether to enable a lunar base, transportation logistics and costs imply that long Mars mission or other missions with long duration duration stays are attractive, yet the risk mitigation is cruise phases [Augustine] with lower crew risk and not well understood. The opportunities to study lower launch mass requirements than a brute force regulatory mechanisms – spanning radiation tolerance, approach. immunology, bone turnover and DNA repair, and Sustainability: A design for sustainability must opportunistic microbial evolution in a closed take many factors into consideration. Alternative environment may have significant implications for long definitions of Sustainability are evolving in different duration operations as well as earth based human contexts, whether with regard to the environment, health and environmental protection. science, politics, economics or operations. It also Astrobiology: The origin of life on Earth and its implies a steady state, which, in this case, would be subsequent evolution to our current state were preceded by a growth phase whose goals, scope, scale influenced by the early and continued bombardment of and pace are yet to be defined. In a culture often the inner solar system and the solar radiation defined by growth, it is a challenge to understand and environment. Studying the Moon as a witness plate will operate within steady state boundaries. During the provide insights into how they influenced our formulation stage, these definitions should be refined evolutionary past and supporting models, metrics and analogs should be analyzed. The development of a reference model References: (framework) will be helpful going forward – both to [1] NLSI Space Biology and Lunar Astrobiology Focus establish a management model and a communications Group Charter: