Integrated Pest Management Protocols for Space-Based Bioregenerative Life Support Systems

Human missions to the Moon and Mars will necessarily increase in both duration and complexity over the coming decades. In the past, short-term missions to low-Earth orbit (LEO) or the Moon (e.g., Apollo) utilized physiochemical life support systems for the crews. However, as the spatial and temporal durations of crewed missions to other planetary bodies increase, physiochemical life support systems become burdened with the requirement of frequent resupply missions. Bioregenerative life support systems (BLSS) have been proposed to replace much of the resupply required of physiochemical systems with modules that can regenerate water, oxygen, and food stocks with plant-based biological production systems. In order to protect the stability and productivity of BLSS modules (i.e., small scale units) or habitats (i.e., large scale systems), an integrated pest management (IPM) program is required to prevent, mitigate, and eliminate both insect pests and disease outbreaks in space-based plant-growing systems. A first-order BLSS IPM program is outlined herein that summarizes a collection of protocols that are similar to those used in field, greenhouse, and vertical-farming agricultural systems. However, the space environment offers numerous unusual stresses to plants, and thus, unique space-based IPM protocols will have to be developed. In general, successful operation of space-based BLSS units will be guided by IPM protocols that (1) should be established early in the mission design phase to be effective, (2) will be dynamic in nature changing both spatially and temporally depending on the successional processes afoot within the crewed spacecraft, plant-growing systems, and through time; and (3) can prevent insect/phytopathology outbreaks at very high levels that can approach 100% if properly implemented.

Impulse Development of Cities Caused by the Range of Certain Infrastructural Factors. Forms and Experience

The issue of impulse development of cities caused by different infrastructural factors is considered.Taking Tenochtitlan, Stockholm and Alexandria as the example, the content and functional structure of infrastructural impulse changes have been outlined. By these we mean rethinking of life support systems, which leads to sharp population growth and employment diversification. To become a ‘growth spurt’ factor, such changes must contain a number of special qualities: convenience, accessibility and uniqueness. Convenience is the difference in the use of infrastructural benefits between the locality in which the impulse change takes place and other similar cities. Accessibility means the ability to use (access) the infrastructural benefits by as many residents as possible. While uniqueness stands for a feature or set of infrastructure features that are notably absent in the cities of the competing area.

Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emission through Energy-Saving Technologies for Heating Modular Buildings

Providing housing with the possibility of rapid construction, with life support systems of the house that allow for the maintenance of comfortable living conditions for those who choose to live there.

Comprehensive Assessment of the Safety of a New Antituberculosis Drug from the Diarylquinolines Group

The safety of the new anti-tuberculosis drug Tiozonide was studied by bioinformatics and preclinical methods using laboratory animals and with the participation of healthy volunteers. The absence of toxic effects on the main life support systems of mammals predicted by QSAR models was confi rmed by the results of acute, subchronic and chronic toxicity tests in various laboratory animals. Monitoring of the vital indicators of volunteers and a comparative analysis of the generalized results of these indicators before (screening), during and after the study showed the absence of reliable and clinically signifi cant changes that threaten the life and health of people.

Ground Demonstration of the Use of Limnospira indica for Air Revitalization in a Bioregenerative Life-Support System Setup: Effect of Non-Nitrified Urine–Derived Nitrogen Sources

Long-duration human space missions require considerable amounts of water, oxygen, and nutritious biomass. Additionally, the space vehicles must be well equipped to deal with metabolic human waste. It is therefore important to develop life-support systems which make these missions self-sufficient in terms of water, food, and oxygen production as well as waste management. One such solution is the employment of regenerative life-support systems that use biological and chemical/physical processes to recycle crew waste, revitalize air, and produce water and food. Photosynthetic cyanobacteria Limnospira could play a significant role in meeting these objectives. Limnospira can metabolize CO2 and nitrogen-rich human waste to produce oxygen and edible biomass. So far, life-support system studies have mainly focused on using chemical/physical methods to recycle water, degrade human waste, and recycle CO2 into oxygen. Nowadays, additional microbial processes are considered, such as nitrification of urea–ammonium–rich human waste and then using the nitrate for cyanobacterial cultivation and air vitalization. This cascade of multiple processes tends to increase the complexity of the life-support systems. The possibility of using non-nitrified urine for Limnospira cultivation can partially solve these issues. Our previous studies have shown that it is possible to cultivate Limnospira with urea and ammonium, the prominent nitrogen forms present in non-nitrified urine. In this study, we investigated the possibility of cultivating Limnospira with the different nitrogen forms present in non-nitrified urine and also evaluated their effect on the oxygen production capacity of Limnospira. For this 35-day-long study, we worked on a simplified version of the European Space Agency’s MELiSSA. During this ground demonstration study, we monitored the effect of urea and ammonium (vs. nitrate) on the oxygen production capacity of Limnospira. A deterministic control law, developed and validated on the basis of a stochastic light-transfer model, modulated (increase/decrease) the incident light on the photobioreactor (with Limnospira) to control oxygen levels in the closed loop. The CO2 from the mouse compartment was recycled as a carbon source for Limnospira. We observed that while the system could meet the desired oxygen levels of 20.3% under the nitrate and urea regime, it could only reach a maximum O2 level of 19.5% under the ammonium regime.