Advanced Life Support Sizing Analysis Tool (ALSSAT) Using Microsoft® Excel 2001-01-2304

The development of an optimum regenerative Advanced Life Support (ALS) system for future Mars missions has been a crucial issue in the space industry. Considering the numerous potential technologies for subsystems with the complexity of the Air Revitalization System (ARS), Water Reclamation System (WRS), and Waste Management System of the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS), it will be time-consuming and costly to determine the best combination of these technologies without a powerful sizing analysis tool. Johnson Space Center (JSC), therefore, initiated the development of ALSSAT using Microsoft® Excel for this purpose. ALSSAT has been developed based upon the ALS Requirement and Design Definition Document (Ref. 18). In 1999, a paper describing the development of ALSSAT with its built-in ARS mass balance model (Ref. 21) was published in ICES. Since then, ALSSAT has been expanded to include the mass balance and sizing models for the WRS (Ref. 37) and the Biomass Production Chamber (Ref. 1). ALSSAT has also been upgraded to allow user selection of resource recovery options. For different mission scenarios, ALSSAT will allow the user to perform detailed sizing of the ECLSS system based on suggested default values or user inputs for different combinations of technologies in the ECLSS. This analysis tool will assist the user in performing system trade studies as well as system optimization efficiently and economically.