Written By: Ari Sandberg, Intern
LifeLab Graduate Project Team, Fall 2014
The purpose of the LifeLAB project team is to create the lab infrastructure for comprehensive Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) testing by faculty and students in the CU Bioastronautics graduate program.
When it comes to ECLSS, there are five main aspects:
- Air revitalization
- Water
- Food
- Waste management
- Thermal control
LifeLAB focuses on two of these areas, namely air revitalization and thermal control. Professor Nabity, one of LifeLAB's project advisors along with Professor Klaus, explains:
"We decided to focus on air revitalization and thermal control for a few reasons. These technologies fell within my and Dr. Klaus's areas of expertise. In particular, the recovery of oxygen from CO2 and single-loop thermal control systems are immature and need further development. Thus, the LifeLAB grad projects teams designed and built facilities in our Bioastronautics laboratory to investigate and advance novel ECLSS technologies with the potential to reduce mass and improve performance. Everything you will see down in our lab is at low TRL (Technology Readiness Level) and has room for development."
To promote research in its targeted areas, LIFELAB contains four major pieces of equipment:
