Closed Biotechnological Cycles in Life Support Systems of Autonomous Transport Systems

Abstract

There is a wide class of autonomous transport systems (ATS) in which a crew performs a few specific functions in a rather isolated environment. Examples of this type of autonomous systems are spaceships and orbital stations, underwater objects (submarines, bathyscaphes) for various purposes, polar stations, and others. In ATS, life support systems (LSS) perform the main tasks that ensure the vital functions of a human crew: support of the environmental parameters (temperature, pressure, humidity), ensuring the crew’s needs for air, water, food, as well as waste transformation. The duration of the missions of autonomous transport systems depends on the ability to generate the life support resources necessary for the crews or on the possibility of their replenishment. Typical LSS today includes three components: Environmental Monitoring, Atmosphere Management, and Water Management. Currently, in the context of ATS, the issues of food supply remain outside the study of researchers. This topic is traditionally discussed within the framework of logistics and inventory management models. The paper describes an approach to autonomous food provision at ATS based on closed biotechnological cycles. The paper provides a classification of autonomous food supply systems based on biotechnology and the principles of closed ecosystems, provides a model for reliability analyze of the use of these systems at autonomous transport systems. The article discusses the results of experiments carried out in this area, as well as formulates conclusions and development prospects.