Concept for a Life Support System Testbed in Space

The concept of a general purpose life support system testbed for use in space grew out of considerations arising from the recent consolidation of NASA's Advanced Life Support (ALS) Systems programs. Both the physicalchemical and the biological approaches to regenerative life support will require significant amounts of in-space testing in order to prepare for the final development of systems for human life support. Considerations of the technical requirements and rationales for in-space testing has led to the concept of a common testbed that will allow faster and less expensive long duration tests.