International Review of the History, Current Work and Future of
Closed Ecological Systems
Program arranged by the Institute of Ecotechnics
July 13-14, 1987
Welcome Lecture Room, Royal Society, London
At the invitation of Professor S.K. Runcorn, FRS

Monday, July I 3

Morning Session: The History of Closed Ecological Systems Session

Afternoon Session: Modeling of Ecological Systems

Tuesday, July 14

Morning Session: Applications of Closed Ecological Systems in Micro-Gravity

Afternoon Session: Applications on Lunar and Martian Surfaces

INSTITUTE OF ECOTECHNICS
24 Old Gloucester Street
London WCI
Tel: 01-242-7367

Summary Abstract

International Review of the History,
Current Work and Future of
Closed Ecological Systems
by Mark Nelson
Chairman, Institute of Ecotechnics

The first "International Review of the History, Current Work and Future of Closed Ecological Systems" was held July 13-14, 1987 at the Royal Society in London. The Institute of Ecotechnics, an international ecological research institute, registered in the United Kingdom, convened the meeting of leading closed system researchers, ecological theorists, and members of the space community for a wide-ranging examination of the field --its achievements, challenges and opportunities.

Materially-closed, energetically-open, ecological systems, or the creation of new micro-"biospheres", constitute a relatively new field of research of great interest for several reasons:

1) Closed ecological systems can sense as unique laboratories for the study of biospheric processes which occur on a planetary scale on Earth, yet they will be open to intensive measuring, monitoring and modeling. For the first time data about the existing biosphere which is essentially a macro materially closed, energetically-open system can be compared and evaluated with data from other closed systems.

2) As long-term self-regulating and sustaining life support apparati, they open the way for economic permanent habitation in space stations and space colonies, whether in micro-gravity locations or on the surface of moons and planets. The recent U.S. Presidential Commission on Space urged work in creating "biospheres" as a key technology for our future in space.

3) "Biospherics" may serve as an integrating discipline utilizing many separate sciences, as their design and operation will require mastery of biogeochemical material cycles and energy flows, use of advanced engineering and computer systems, genetics, nutrition, management etc. "Comparative biospherics" and "experimental ecology" will become possible.

The first session on History and Current Projects in closed ecological systems was opened by Prof. Clair Folsome, Director of the Exobiology Laboratory of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. In 1967 he was the first researcher to close laboratory-sized aquatic microbial flasks --from 100 to 5,000 ml --and demonstrated that they can persist for tens of years, and perhaps even indefinitely. Prof. Folsome reviewed the history of closed ecosystem work, and the two major trends of "inductive" and "deductive" approaches to the question; the inductive building up from component parts, the deductive working with the power of biological whole systems, and then simplifying them. Early investigators underestimated both the complexity of living systems, and their ability to adjust. He reviewed the types of equilibrium conditions his systems have stabilized at, many with significantly higher levels of metabolism and oxygen levels and emphasized the crucial roles microorganisms play in all closed ecological systems in ensuring the cycling of elements.

Prof. Ganna Meleshko, Department Head of the Closed Ecological Systems Section of the Institute for Biomedical Problems, Moscow, summarized the work which pioneered man-chorella*-microbial closed systems in the early 1960's. These systems were the first to include man or other animals as a mass-exchange link; but were stable for only a matter of days. Prof. Meleshko gave criteria for assessing their stability and self-regulating mechanisms, which the chorella/microbial systems were able to achieve. She underlined the importance of continued work on closed ecological systems which owe much to the groundwork laid by Tsiolkovsky, who saw man's future in space, and Vernadsky, who first formulated the scientific basis of the biosphere. Prof. Meleshko saw the basic motivation behind such efforts as that of assisting the destiny of man and the biosphere to move into space. (*green algae)

Dr. William Knott, Manager of the Life Sciences Support Facility at Kennedy Space Center, is directing the installation and operation of NASA's most ambitious Controlled Ecological Life Support Systems (CELSS) project: "Breadboard". Dr. Knott outlined their phased approach and mission goals in putting closed life-systems into space, and reviewed the progress of Breadboard, which has re-fitted a Project Mercury pressure chamber to grow likely space food staples in closed atmosphere and recycling water conditions. Energy for electric lights will be supplied from outside, as will nutrients. Later phases will include waste recycling and food processing systems.

  • Prof. Josef Gitelson, Director of the Institute of Biophysics, Siberian Academy of Sciences, Krasnoyarsk, reviewed the Bios 3 experimental "life-craft" they have experimented with since 1972. Their work was begun in the early 1960's with the strong backing of Academician Sergei Korolev, the "chief designer" and space visionary of Soviet astronautics, who saw the necessity of such systems. Prof. Gitelson showed a film made of a 6 month experiment in which a 3 member crew which lived in and operated the system. The Bios 3 facility of 300 cubic meters included two growth chambers (phytotrons) for agricultural crops, one for green algae tanks, and an area for food processing, laboratories, quarters for crew etc. It achieved a complete recycling of air and water while producing close to half the nutrition needs of the 2 or 3 person crews. The Bios series of experiments were the first to include man not only as a mass-exchange link in the system, but as an "operator, who is a central link in collecting information, making decisions and performing tasks". Prof. Gitelson indicated that the limiting factor in the length of autonomy of closed systems is the reliability of its technical infrastructure, their most short-lived component, and not the living component which is highly "self-repairing" and self-organizing. Among the challenges he noted for next steps in closed systems was the evaluation of non-traditional food sources, integration of animals, complete recycling of biomass, and the dynamics of micro-elements and microflora. The work on Bios-3 indicates the feasibility of biological life-support systems to expand beyond the Earth's biosphere. Such systems "allow man to exist consuming only outside energy and discharging no metabolites into his outside medium," which makes them especially relevant not only for expansion of Earthlife into space but for the most urgent problems humankind faces in living in our present biosphere.

    • Margret Augustine, CEO and Project Director of Space Biospheres Ventures, presented the Biosphere II project underway near Tucson, Arizona. Currently under construction, Biosphere II will be a two-acre materially closed, energetically and informationally open ecological system which will contain seven biomes: tropical rainforest, Savannah, marsh, marine, desert, intensive agriculture, and human habitat. Biosphere II will be 5 million cubic feet in volume and include on the order of 2,300 species of plants and animals at closure in December, 1989. She proposed such a biospheric system as a prototype for a long term life habitat on Mars or the Moon, while component systems in the intensive agriculture and habitat biomes will serve as prototypes for regenerative ecological systems for space-based habitats. Space Biospheres Ventures has already constructed and is operating extensive research facilities at the Biosphere II site: a 17,000 square foot experimental intensive agriculture complex (greenhouse and aquaculture), a large plant tissue culture laboratory, a 10, 000 square foot plant quarantine and acquisition facility for receiving and cultivating plants destined for Biosphere II. The 450 cubic meter Biosphere II Test Module, one of the largest closed systems ever built, is currently being used for experiments with ecological systems including plants, soils and insect populations.

    The second session was on Ecological Modeling, as small closed ecological systems present an opportunity for studying phenomena which are either too vast to measure, or too complex and synergetic to be completely understood through analysis of its parts. Similarly increased understanding of Earth's natural ecosystems and biosphere will provide better models for the creation of closed systems.

    Dr. Howard T. Odum, Graduate Research Professor at the Department of Environmental Engineering, University of Florida at Gainesville, is not only one of the founders of systems ecology but was one of the first to create ecological microcosms to simulate natural processes. This work from 1955-1970 concluded that "self-organization develops patterns that maximize power which cause similar designs to result in closed systems." Underlining the real energy costs which are often overlooked in assessing true carrying capacity, that "the space and solar energy required to support humans operating above the animal level is larger than the area necessary to supply gaseous or food requirements," Dr. Odum pointed out the importance of including sufficient species diversity to ensure stability, and that "the modern paradigm of ecosystems is that long term patterns include pulsing alternations of production and consumption. " His analysis of the power requirements (transformities) involved in ecosystems permit for the first time the quantum jump from ecosystem to biospheric modeling, which Dr. Odum demonstrated in microcomputer simulations using complex preliminary models of Biosphere II.

    Dr. Ramon Margalef, Professor Emeritus with the Department of Ecology, University of Barcelona, looked at the problem of stability in low-mass anthropogenic closed systems and the level of "kick" they can sustain. Prof. Margalef's work in ecological modeling has been to make them more representative of actualities: no natural cycle is perfect, leading one to recognize that fixed parameters must be replaced by state variables. He identified spatial structure, segregation of biogenic materials and gradual increase of molecules hard to recycle as likely problems in closed ecosystem design. Prof. Margalef emphasized the amount of biospheric reserves which sustain Earth's life, much of which is life-created. The other side of the biospheric coin, and quite predominant in quantity, is the "necrosphere". Drawing on his work in planktonic systems modeling he offered suggestions applicable to closed ecosystems: Planktonic systems are organized around an axis defined by the direction of light and gravity. The vertical distance between the center of gravity of primary production (with daily pulses) and the center of gravity around which respiratory activity is distributed, provides a good descriptor ( L ). "Capacity for production may be related to A (external energy)/ L squared. "

    Dr. Walter Orr Roberts, President Emeritus of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, presented the type of general circulation models now available for global atmospheric simulations, taking as a case study the increase of C02 man is unintententionally adding to the atmosphere. "Modern computer-based climate models treat the ocean-land-atmosphere ensemble as a closed system, and with varying degrees of detail and sophistication, making it possible to predict the climatic outcome of specified alterations of the driving forces and controlling processes. Such models, run in supercomputers like the Cray I may need two minutes to make 10,000 million calculations to advance the model by one day of simulated time. It may take several hundred simulated days for such a model to stabilize after a change of, for example, the carbon dioxide level. Without the super-computers of today and tomorrow much of this work would be impossible. " Dr Roberts noted that most models show a global warming of significant degree with the expected increases in levels of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, adding "This will impact most aspects of human society, some favorably and some adversely by the end of another 50 years." Dr. Roberts thought there may be important benefits from sophisticated computer modeling of closed ecosystems being planned, such as Biosphere II.

    John Allen, Executive Chairman of Space Biospheres Ventures, elucidated an approach for modeling of complex biospheric systems based upon an hierarchical organization of component life systems --with sufficient complexity and diversity, these systems are noted to self-organize and to interact, producing a synergetic effect in generating a dynamic equilibrium with evolutionary potential. To the biospheric systems, which are basically driven by microbes, Mr. Allen proposed the inclusion of the human "technosphere", so as to develop a noospheric system model --wherein a constructive relationship between biosphere and technosphere generates a "noosphere" or sphere of intelligence capable of creating and managing new habitats for life with greater evolutionary potential. He emphasized the significance of Vernadsky, Lovelock, Margulis and Folsome in developing the theory of the biosphere as a biogeochemical, autonomous, self-regulating system, and how the Biosphere II project is being designed in the Newtonian tradition as a "critical experiment" to test that theory.

    The meeting's third and fourth sessions dealt with future perspectives: Applications of Closed Ecological Systems in Micro-gravity and on Lunar and Martian Surfaces.

    Dr. Vladimir Sychev, Section Head, Space Plant Physiology section of the Institute for Biomedical Problems, gave an overview of our experience with plants in micro-gravity conditions. Although some small reduction in productivity has been noted in green algae experiments, the over-riding conclusion from work thus far is that the basic physiological functioning of unicellular and higher plants is scarcely affected by weightlessness. Dr. Sychev indicated that an important focus of attention should be the design of apparati suitable for plant growth and closed ecosystems in micro-gravity; that this may account for some of the problems and reduced activity thus far observed.

    Dr. Mel Averner, Progam Manager of the NASA Biospheric Research Program and CELSS Program, looked at proposed models for closed life systems in space stations and space colonies. He reviewed the planning underway in NASA to develop closed, bioregenerative life support systems for application in microgravity such as in low Earth orbit. Dr. Averner noted the necessity of developing adequate models of perturbations to understand and predict potential failure modes in closed life systems, and the parallel concerns potential in understanding "global habitability" and the effects of man's activities, and the attempt to create anthropogenic life-support systems capable of sustained stability.

    Linda Leigh, Terrestrial Biome Design Coordinator for the Space Biospheres Ventures Biosphere II project, outlined the Institute of Ecotechnic's strategy for creating space-based microgravity life habitats using the analogy of island ecologies. Such a strategy would involve human participation as the "migrating species" which carry with them the inoculum of life as well as other required elements and placing them in a favorable relation to one another to create a life system. She presented current work at the Biosphere II project for Space Biospheres Ventures in bioelemental recycling and closed ecological systems, and proposed the Institute of Ecotechnic's scenario for establishing an agro-ecological island on a re-used external fuel tank from a space shuttle. This proposal included a sequential approach to creating closed ecological systems in space --using Biosphere II Test Module-sized systems for orbiting space stations, intensive agriculture biome as the prototype for an initial lunar base, and the full biospheric system for permanent habitation on Mars or elsewhere.

    Dr. Roy Walford, Professor of Pathology, UCLA Medical School, looked at medical problems common to extraterrestrial and especially microgravity environments which include during the short term ( 1-month) motion sickness, fluid shifts, and cardiovascular deconditioning, and for the long term muscle atrophy, bone demineralization, and the hazards of irradiation (shortened life span, cataracts, cancer). "The short-term effects are self-limiting and should not disturb a long-term mission. Muscle atrophy can be controlled by exercise. The bone demineralization of microgravity shows features of osteoporosis that develops with prolonged bed rest or from aging. Not necessarily a direct gravity phenomenon, it might be influenceable by greater understanding of bone physiology. Most or all irradiation damage is mediated by production of free radicals in tissues. These can be partially counteracted by radical scavenging drugs, and/or by up-regulation of the internal antioxidant defense systems of the body by dietary modification. " Dr. Walford concluded that "there is no medical reason prohibiting humans from enjoying long-term existence in space or on various heavenly bodies. "

    Dr. Henry Lisovsky, Deputy Director of the Institute of Biophysics, Krasnoyarsk, opened our discussion on extra-planetary applications by sharing with us the great scope of his pioneering work on plant agronomy in closed ecological systems. Under the experimental conditions of the Bios 3 facility (continuous artificial illumination of Photosynthetically Active Radiation of 140-180 W/m2) 13 square meters of plants provided a continuous supply for one man of oxygen, water and 40-45% of vegetable food. His recent work offers considerable evidence that even under such extremes as the lunar photoperiod (15 days of light followed by 15 of dark) that plant growth of food crops is feasible. Dr. Lisovsky's techniques included removal of plants during the dark period from the hydroponic to a pure water medium.

    Prof. Keith Runcorn, FRS, Head of the School of Physics, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, reviewed progress in understanding the history of forces which shaped the moon, and emphasized the value lunar bases with life-support capabilities will offer in making possible long-term investigations of the Moon. Prof. Runcorn suggested multi-ring impact basins as important first areas for such bases, as their study may yield data on the theory of past moon satellites, and the periodic emission of volatile gases, which could prove an extremely valuable resource for creating and sustaining life-support systems.

    Dr. Mike Duke, Chief, Solar System Exploration Division, Johnson Space Center, Houston, gave an account of the type of advance planning now underway to develop lunar resources and make permanent self-sustaining bases possible. "The first lunar base may be a fairly simple extension of Space Station technology, and could be in place in the 2000-2005 time frame. This station would have as its objectives the scientific exploration of the Moon, use of the Moon as a platform for scientific studies in astronomy and other fields, and the establishment of highly closed life support systems and pilot plants for extracting useful materials from the lunar soil. " Dr. Duke said studies show that programs that envision space activities an order of magnitude larger than current levels will benefit from development of lunar resources. That includes a piloted Mars program which requires several hundred tons of propellants in low Earth orbit for each launch of a chemically fueled rocket.He pointed out the importance of closed ecological systems to the long-term viability of a lunar base: "Most concepts for lunar bases envision a growth from outpost to a self-sufficient configuration which necessarily includes a life support system capable of producing food and recycling wastes, while minimizing losses of these depleted elements. Indeed the question of utilization of indigenous lunar material is essential --if a base is going to have a materials production function, for example to produce liquid oxygen for propellant use, that system must be integrated into the life-support system, which will make the total system for a lunar base distinctive from that which might be used in an orbiting space-based system. However, the potential of relaxing some of the closed system constraints through use of lunar materials provides a new set of possibilities for ecosystem expansion at a lunar base. " Although the Moon's crust is lacking in hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen, enough of these elements are available from implanted solar wind to provide materials for a substantial life support system. Dr. Duke concluded by observing that lunar and other space developments are being held up by lack of the political will to proceed, rather than by any deficit in our technical ability to succeed.

    Dr. James Head, Chairman of the Solar System Exploration Council and Professor of Geosciences, Brown University, gave an overview of the geology and surface features of Mars as a resource for closed ecosystem bases there. He summarized the findings of the Viking missions to Mars which revealed a diverse set of geological processes including "extensive impact crater rings at all scales, widespread volcanic flooding and construction of massive shield volcanoes, tectonic activity producing gargantuan rift valleys such as Valles Marineris, regional floodings and channeling from the flow of liquid water in the past, and polar caps and associated deposits. The Viking lander data reveal the characteristics of the surface of Mars at the detailed scale. This information is extremely useful in beginning to define possible resources on Mars and the characteristics of potential sites for human exploration and settlement. For example, impact basin rims may be sites of volatile deposits and resources excavated from deep crustal or subcrustal depths. Various layered deposits may be the sites of ancient pole positions and may represent sources of near surface volatiles. Concentration of volcanic activity in such regions as Tharsis suggests long-lived sources of heat, perhaps near the surface." Dr. Head reviewed plans for the next decade of planetary exploration which will see multiple missions to Mars by the Soviet Union and the United States,culminating in the return of samples from Mars by the USSR in the 1990's. These data will begin the "process of convergence of a broad geologic view of the surface of Mars derived from Viking,and the detailed knowledge required for planning future human exploration and habitation of Mars. "

    Carl Hodges, Director of the Environmental Research Laboratory (ERL), University of Arizona, addressed the feasibility of applying closed ecological systems on Mars, reviewing some of the technologies developed in the past few decades and reminding us of the chronic tendency to underestimate our power to technically innovate. Taking the history of ERL, he reviewed their progress in solar energy technology, the creation of closed environment greenhouses to make highly-productive agriculture and aquaculture possible in extremely harsh and arid regions, and the search for new crops among the halophytes, plants which thrive under conditions of salinity fatal for most life-forms. Extending life to micro-gravity, the Moon or Mars is simply a new form of the challenge colonizing life and pioneering men have faced in the past. Mr. Hodges reviewed some of the technological advances the Biosphere II project has already achieved, such as air and water purification systems, and outlined design strategies for the movement of closed ecosystems to Mars. He concluded by urging a project of a scale and vision sufficient to ally astronautics and biospherics: joint U.S./Soviet cooperation in an international program to take biospheric life to Mars

    @ Copyright 1987 by the Institute of Ecotechnics