Interplanetary Mission Consumable Mass Balance

A crewed Mars transit has no resupply option for the better part of a year, so its life-support system must close the water and oxygen loop almost completely — whatever fraction is not reclaimed each day has to be carried as extra launch mass. This simulator tracks that cumulative mass balance directly: set a mission duration, a closed-loop recycling efficiency, a crew size and an onboard reserve margin, and watch the unrecycled consumable mass accumulate day by day against the fixed reserve capacity. Because the shortfall is charged every single day of the transit, even a recycling efficiency that sounds high — 93%, 95%, 97% — can still cross the reserve threshold well before the crew reaches Mars, while a spacecraft with only a few extra points of efficiency comfortably completes the trip with margin to spare.