Record Display for the EPA National Library Catalog

RECORD NUMBER: 324 OF 330

Main Title Use of Vegetable Cultures as the Photosynthetic Component of Isolated Ecological Cycles for Space Travel.
Author Ric, Linvil G. ; Ingra, William Marcus ; Berge, Bernard B. ;
CORP Author Robert A. Taft Sanitary Engineering Center, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Year Published 1960
Stock Number PB-215 119
Additional Subjects ( Photosynthesis ; Closed ecological systems) ; ( Space flight ; Food supply) ; ( Bioastronautics ; Photosynthesis) ; Human ecology ; Survival in space ; Plants(Botany) ; Food ; Cycles ; Energy ; Algae ;
Holdings
Library Call Number Additional Info Location Last
Modified
Checkout
Status
NTIS  PB-215 119 Some EPA libraries have a fiche copy filed under the call number shown. 07/26/2022
Collation 19p
Abstract
Although dehydrated foods and tanked water and oxygen will suffice for space flights of relatively short duration, long-term operations will be possible only if these necessities can be derived from the environment within the space vehicle. Conservation of environmental mass will make mandatory some type of closed ecological system kept in operation by a source of continuous energy. Conceivably, such a system will involve a carbon-dioxide exchange between humans and plants, waste reutilization, and the growth of plants for human consumption. Several sustenance systems have been proposed. In each case, attention was centered on the use of algae as the photosynthetic component of the closed cycle. Algae has been used as a dietary supplement, but no instance has been reported where the diet of man, or any other terrestrial mammal, has consisted entirely of algae. In contrast, higher plants have long been a primary source of human food material. Thus the study reports the use of higher plants as the photosynthate in the human sustenance system.