Considerations Regarding the Development of an Environmental Control and Life Support System for Lunar Surface Applications 2008-01-2187

NASA is engaged in early architectural analyses and trade studies aimed at evaluating operations concepts, identifying requirements, predicting performance and resource needs, characterizing mission constraints and sensitivities, and guiding technology development planning that will be needed to conduct a successful human exploration campaign of the lunar surface. Conceptual architectures and resource estimates for environmental control and life support systems (ECLSS) within pressurized lunar surface habitats, logistics modules, and rovers have been developed and compared in order to support these lunar campaign studies. This paper will discuss some of those concepts and some of the more noteworthy considerations that will likely remain as key drivers in the evolution of the lunar surface ECLSS architecture.