MELiSSA (Micro Ecological Life Support System Alternative) is developing bioregenerative Life Support technologies for long-term Space missions.The MELiSSA concept is conceived as a loop with several compartments, each one performing a specific function, providing all together edible material production, atmosphere regeneration and water recovery with a concomitant use of wastes, i.e.
, CO2 and organic wastes.Each one of the compartments is colonized with specific bacteria or Creams higher plants depending on its specific function.The MELiSSA Pilot Plant is a facility designed for the terrestrial demonstration of this concept, hosting laboratory rats as a crew mock-up mimicking the respiration of humans.
Currently, the MELiSSA Pilot Plant focus on the integration of three compartments: Compartment 3 (nitrifying packed-bed bioreactor based on the co-culture of immobilized Nitrosomonas europaea and Nitrobacter winogradsky), compartment 4a (an air-lift photobioreactor for the culture of the edible cyanobacteria Limnospira indica with concomitant oxygen production) and Compartment 5 (an animal isolator with rats as mock-up crew).The output from these tests shows a high robustness and reliability and the performance of oxygen producing and oxygen consuming compartments is successfully demonstrated under transitory and steady-state conditions.This ORG BLACK SOY BEANS contribution reports on the current state of development of the MELiSSA Pilot Plant Facility and the most recent results of the integration work.