Scientists have found critical gaps in Nasa’s development of space life support systems that could prevent the United States from competing with China in the pursuit of long-term manned space exploration and habitation.
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While Beijing and Moscow have joined forces to establish a lunar research base, Washington’s limited support for bioregenerative life support research puts its space competitiveness at risk, a team of scientists including Nasa researchers has found.
The team said that past research and policy decisions – such as funding and programme cuts – had created “critical gaps” in Nasa’s current space habitation capabilities.
“Now on the verge of returning to the moon, Nasa needs to develop the critical capabilities required to build and operate a lunar outpost,” the team said in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal npj Microgravity on August 16.
The paper was written by researchers from Purdue University, Northeastern University, Utah State University, the University of Utah, and Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre and Ames Research Centre.
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The existing approach to space life support systems in the US, including for the International Space Station (ISS), involves resupply trips to transport water, food and other consumable materials.
Long-term human missions past Earth’s orbit to the moon or Mars are limited by the massive costs and logistics issues associated with resupply launches, along with safety concerns about the impact of radiation and microgravity on the human body, the team said.