Thriving in Space Ensuring the Future of Biological and Physical Sciences Research: A Decadal Survey for 2023-2032 (2023) / Chapter Skim
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6 Research Campaigns
6 Research Campaigns
Pages 158-194
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From page 158... ...
is a recommended research campaign to firmly demonstrate fundamental knowledge of the impact of the space environment on individual organisms and the dependencies on and synergies between organisms and the diverse populations that could serve as biological life-support systems in space -- systems that could be self-sustaining. Manufacturing Materials and Processes for Sustainability in Space (MATRICES)
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From page 159... ...
Coordination beyond NASA, including other federal agencies and the private sector as well as public-private partner ships, should be considered for the dedicated new funding and materials to support the following two research campaigns: • BLiSS (Bioregenerative Life Support Systems) to build and understand the systems that would provide high-quality food, refresh air and water, process wastes and enable the creation of space environments sustainable for long periods of time independent of Earth.
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From page 160... ...
• Crew time required to execute the core BPS Division research program and research campaigns can be estimated reasonably using NASA historical data. It is further assumed that, under the CLD model, crew time is an extensible resource (i.e., in principle, more crew time could be purchased if needed)
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From page 161... ...
research access specifically to Starship was not incorporated in the technical risk and cost evaluations of the BLiSS (Bioregenerative Life Support Systems) and MATRICES (Manufacturing Materials and Processes for Sustainability in Space)
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From page 162... ...
. RESEARCH CAMPAIGN: BIOREGENERATIVE LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS The BLiSS research campaign is driven toward the following four high-level goals: • Develop self-sustainable biological life-support systems that produce food, clean water, renew air, process waste, and create critical materials to meet the challenges of long-duration space missions.
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From page 163... ...
, and the Global Exploration Roadmap. Earth is a worldwide BLiSS research campaign that is almost entirely self-sufficient and does everything from harvest energy from the Sun, renew the atmosphere, purify water, produce billions of different biomolecules, break down rock and inorganic and organic molecules, and produce the raw materials to build structures and feed future life cycles (Douglas et al.
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From page 164... ...
SOURCES: Committee created with images courtesy of NASA; Earth: NASA/NOAA/GOES Project. The BLiSS research campaign is designed to contribute answers to KSQs that are highlighted in Chapter 4, primarily under the second theme of living and traveling in space.
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From page 165... ...
. A key goal for the BLiSS research campaign is to develop small-scale production systems that can supplement both of these for crews on long-duration missions while simultaneously laying the groundwork for larger BLiSS elements.
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From page 166... ...
Integration and Development The BLiSS research campaign represents a major effort that will benefit from focusing on developing and modeling individual modules or functions as well as from large, coordinated multi-national campaigns (Fu et al. 2016; Lang and Bamsay 2023; Salisbury 1992)
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From page 167... ...
. These are valuable types of hardware to have available in the deep space environment.
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. Unfortunately, the capabilities to do all of this in a fully automated manner in the deep space environment do not yet exist.
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From page 169... ...
While there is a strong desire to have all of these instruments in space, the constraints of spaceflight prevent most of them from flying. A research campaign is needed that calls for the development of automated, miniaturized versions of instruments that can be used in space.
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From page 170... ...
The big idea of the BLiSS research campaign is to enable building fully functional biological support systems to support exploration of deep space. It is unlikely that this will be mastered or have the resources to build a functional habitat on Mars or the Moon by the end of the decade.
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From page 171... ...
from a set of specific goals to meet a set of capabilities needed to enable a bioregenerative life support system. For example, one such experiment series termed "Supplemental Crop Selection/Verification" was laid out as a series of 60–70 experiments in Veggie and expected to take ~4.5 years if there were two Veggie facilities available.
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From page 172... ...
, and the number of experiment repetitions or iterations. The calendar time was estimated, and crew time and upmass/downmass were then scaled using relevant NASA-provided cost estimates for LEO research based on the NASA Commercial Use Pricing Policy,8 including midsize (1–4 MLE, EXPRESS rack)
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From page 173... ...
No specific estimate was made for data transfer costs. RESEARCH CAMPAIGN: MANUFACTURING MATERIALS AND PROCESSES FOR SUSTAINABILITY IN SPACE The MATRICES research campaign is driven by an overarching aim with four goals, together enabling circular life cycles for materials in space and on Earth.
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Hayes/NIST; Right: Shutterstock/ Insight-Photography. FIGURE 6-8 Alternative approaches to manage waste are needed to enable a circular economy.
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The space environment is also an important context in which to phase out waste production and work toward a circular material life cycle; these capabilities will be impactful to change operations both on Earth and in space. This section discusses several facets of this experimental research that can be pursued within the coming decade to advance the capabilities for circular material life cycles and in situ resource processing.
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From page 176... ...
For example, if materials are in the form of powders or other loose small ingredients, these can be challenging to handle in the orbital gravity environment. Thus, uncertainties of these processes in the space environment include the following: How do thermodynamics in the space environment create obstacles or opportunities for additive manufacturing and recycling?
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From page 177... ...
Going further, how can by-products of one reaction be utilized to feed into other critical processes? Some will fit into 9 See NASA Glenn Research Center, 2023, "Shear History Extensional Rheology Experiment (SHERE)
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From page 178... ...
A third KSQ prompts studies of the detailed properties of in situ-acquired space materials and asks how the space environment affects their ability to be used directly by biological systems or processed into usable forms. For example, how does their microstructure affect water retention in plants and cells, root formation, microbial activity, cell respiration, and internal or skin effects on more complex organisms?
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From page 179... ...
TRACE of the BLiSS research campaign assumed experiments in parallel in the ISS and on the CLDs as the latter access becomes available; cost estimates included continued ISS-based research capabilities and adapted "copies" for CLD-based research. TRACE of the MATRICES research campaign includes similar assumptions, specifically the assumption in these cost estimates that the high-mass, high-cost physical sciences facilities (Fluids and Combustion, EXPRESS Rack for Microgravity Science with Glovebox, Materials Science Research Rack, the light microscopy module, and the Cold Atom Laboratory)
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Advances in understanding and technology for converting complex waste in a combined biological-chemical engineering environment into manufacturing feedstocks would be highly beneficial to terrestrial recycling and reducing impact on the environment. Broad Costs of the Research Campaign, Including the Associated Facilities and Platforms As illustrated in Figures 6-9 and 6-10, the total estimated cost of a MATRICES research campaign thus scoped would be $3.7 billion over 10 years, with the expenditure peaking in ~2029.
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Transfer NASA data Light Microscopy Module Transfer NASA data Cold Atom Lab Transfer NASA data Wet Lab and Precision Measurement Bench $464 Scaled from NASA data and technology investment Hosting Platforms Materials and Manufacturing Workbench $265 Scaled from NASA data and technology investment Bioreactor - Materials Processing $265 Scaled from NASA data and technology investment Processing Cost, Integration, and Test $103 NASA data scaled for facilities and experiments Phase B/C/D Reserves $99 Wrap Phase E/F Hosting Accommodations $1,210 $806 Scaled from provider information and NASA data Phase E/F Operations $20 $195 $340 NASA data scaled by NAS crew time estimates Crew Time $52 $561 NASA data scaled by NAS crew time estimates Launch Vehicle / Services ROM $350 $300 NASA data scaled by NAS crew time estimate Sample Return ROM $50 $45 NASA data scaled by NAS crew time estimate Phase E/F Reserves Schedule extension Total Hosting Platforms $ 472 $ 1,405 $ 3,248 Total MATRICES Unique Elements $ 3,741 FIGURE 6-9 MATRICES (Manufacturing Materials and Processes for Sustainability in Space) research campaign cost table.
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From page 182... ...
SOURCE: Provided by The Aerospace Corporation under contract with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. FIGURE 6-11 The Materials Science Research Rack, currently on the International Space Station, could be transferred to a new commercial station.
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For this reason, establishing and using modular laboratories in this research campaign that can be adapted to support other research in fluids, materials, and biological sciences are efficient investments. MULTI-AGENCY OPPORTUNITY: PROBING THE FABRIC OF SPACETIME In addition to the two research campaigns recommended above, the committee also considered a multi-agency opportunity that would ultimately include research campaign–related efforts important to NASA's BPS contributions to fundamental physics, and resulting in data and capabilities of interest to several other parts of the U.S.
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Quantum physics is now enabling investigations that leverage the space environment in multiple ways. The proposed research requires solar system distance scales to accumulate measurable signals from weak gravitational waves, dark matter and dark energy, or as-yet-unknown physics.
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From page 185... ...
Research Thrusts Overview The ultraprecise quantum sensing network proposed here will provide the collective "prepared mind" of the advanced physics communities to be able to discover new science that will undoubtedly become the basis for the development of the most advanced engineering systems in decades to come. PFaST is about harnessing the power of quantum technology to search for dark matter and dark energy in the solar system to probe the origins of the universe by listening to gravitational waves of currently unmeasurable frequencies, and to explore if the gravitational field -- described by space-time curvature in Einstein's theory of general relativity -- is fundamentally a quantum entity unto itself.
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From page 186... ...
Key Steps Atomic clocks and atom interferometers are two basic building blocks of quantum sensing. The quantum sensing network proposed here involves precise inter-comparisons of advanced, optical clocks that will eventually be deployed throughout the solar system.
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The specific campaign elements selected attempt to balance risk and usefulness of the achievements. Space-Capable Optical Clocks There have been significant improvements in the implementation of microwave, space-capable, trapped-ion atomic clocks (Burt et al.
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These data may be useful to estimate the systematics of uniform acceleration in future lattice optical clock designs. Such an OLC facility on the ISS may be operated later within this program and compared against a free-flyer optical clock to further characterize the effects of vibrations, and other aspects of the crewed space environment on optical clock stability and systematics.
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From page 189... ...
In particular, an ISS-based "relay" OTT would be useful and relatively straightforward to deploy on the ISS, because it would not be affected by the ISS environment the way an optical clock would. Detection and measurement of dark matter or dark energy within the solar system does depend on achieving effective OTT beyond LEO or developing the clocks to the suggested performance goal.
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From page 190... ...
Broad Considerations of PFaST, Including the Associated Facilities and Platforms While the DSAC-2 elements and needed technology developments were assessed as low to medium risk, those associated with the OTT link and high-performance OLC were mostly assessed as medium to high. While the fundamental concepts support BPS science, development of the technological capabilities and system integration required for flying a DSAC-2 on a deep space mission is more properly within the realm of one of the other NASA SMD divisions or STMD.
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From page 191... ...
federal research programs, and they may substantially reduce the costs of the recommended fundamental physics research campaign to place OLCs in space. Because the results of fundamental physics research is typically published in journals with an international distribution, and because the results of fundamental physics research involves international scientific collaborations already, and builds human knowledge that spans across national boundaries, a strong commitment exists to cooperate and share expenses between nations in support of fundamental physics research.
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From page 192... ...
One central goal would be to get larger numbers of intact mammals, including genetically diverse populations, into the combination of high radiation and microgravity to gauge the response of intact mammals in the deep space environment. Figure 6-13 shows the polar orbit of the proposed notional concept freeflyer that accesses a wider range of radiation and microgravity than typical orbits used currently for BPS research.
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From page 193... ...
SUMMARY The proposed research campaigns, multi-agency opportunity, and notional concept for BPS research platforms offer transformative opportunities for sustained, coordinated science that advance the knowledge needed for extended space missions and return benefits to society. Such ambitious efforts will require investment in the human capital -- including broadened participation by more talented scientists inspired by such team-based, multiyear, mission-focused research -- and in the physical capital and collaboration within and beyond reach of U.S.
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From page 194... ...
SOURCE: Courtesy of NASA, https://www.flickr.com/photos/ nasa2explore/52095126237, CC BY-NC 2.0. FIGURE 6-16 The Cygnus space freighter from Northrop Grumman, with its prominent cymbal-shaped UltraFlex solar arrays, is pictured moments after its release from the Canadarm2 robotic arm, ending its 83-day stay at the International Space Station.
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