Life Support Architecture Comparison: Resupply Mass Simulator

Architecture

Mission Parameters

Crew size 4

Mission duration 180 days

Regeneration efficiency 100%

Selected Architecture

Resupply mass— kg

Cargo launches needed—

Mass saved vs open-loop— kg

All Architectures

Open-Loop

—

Partial

—

Bioregen.

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How it works

A crew consumes roughly fixed daily masses of oxygen, water and food. A life-support architecture's closure fraction is the share of each that gets recycled on board instead of launched fresh; whatever isn't closed must be resupplied by cargo flights.

daily need / person: O2 0.84 kg · water 11.0 kg · food 0.83 kg

resupply(day) = crew × Σ need_i × (1 − closure_i × efficiency)
total resupply = resupply(day) × days × 1.15   (1.15 = packaging/spares overhead)
launches = ceil(total resupply / 2400 kg)      (Progress-class cargo capacity)

Closure fractions used here (efficiency slider scales the recycled share, modelling wear or an early-mission ramp-up):

Open-Loop — 0% water, 0% O₂, 0% food. Every kilogram is launched from Earth, as on short Apollo/Gemini flights with LiOH scrubbers and stored tanks.
Partial Closure (ISS-style) — ≈93% water recovery (Water Recovery System distilling urine and cabin humidity), ≈55% O₂ recovery (electrolysis of recovered water plus a Sabatier reactor recycling CO₂), 0% food.
Bioregenerative (full closure) — ≈98% water, ≈92% O₂ (plant/algae photosynthesis), ≈50% food (crops grown in habitat), representative of MELiSSA/BLSS concepts studied for Mars transit and surface bases.

The bars in the 3D view are scaled resupply-mass towers with a stack of instanced cargo canisters on top — one canister per cargo launch required, capped visually at 50 per architecture. The tower for the architecture you've selected is lit; the other two stay dim for comparison.

Open-Loop Partial Closure Bioregenerative

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