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MARS MISSION Hardware Progress

The Micro-Space “Centrifugal Evaporator”, for Zero G, Water Recycling has now completed 3 years and one week of continuous operation , at 14 times its required speed, in accelerated life tests. Tomorrow, the total will be 1,111 days of run time, well beyond the total for a “Slow” (Minimum Energy) Mars mission. As noted earlier, this compact unit is full size to process an adult human's liquid metabolic waste, saving more than one kilogram a day of mission supplies. This test will continue. Food required runs about ½ kg per day (with some high energy foods), and Oxygen at 640 grams a day without recycling. Efficient CO2 capture will allow partial recapture of the Oxygen, with no net O2 input then required. (Human metabolism produces H2O as a byproduct, which can be electrolyzed (in another of our prototypes) to yield Oxygen. This more than makes up for normal reprocessing losses.) Bulk water, like wash water, can be recycled by standard “Reverse Osmosis”– producing concentrated contaminant solutions for evaporation. Our test of a “Transfer Membrane”, for CO2 capture into recycled MEA solutions, has now completed 18 months of run time, and is thus equally promising. This is also a core component of a Zero G “Life Support” system. Both systems are sufficiently compact and low mass that spare systems and components are easily accommodated. These encouraging results support our prediction that “Low Cost” Human Mars Missions (ca $100 Million budget) will need only 500 kg of consumables per traveler.
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