2 Hybrid Estimation at a Glance

Abstract

One of our test applications is a simulation study of the BIO-Plex Test Complex at NASA Johnson Space Center, a five chamber facility for evaluating biological and physiochemical Martian life support technologies. It is an artificial, biosphere-type, closed environment, which must robustly provide all the air, water, and most of the food for a crew of four without interruption. Plants are grown in two plant growth chambers where they provide the food for the crew and convert the exhaled CO₂ into O₂. In order to maintain the closed-loop system, it is essential to control the resource exchange between the plant growth chambers and the other chambers without endangering the crew. For the scope of this book, we restrict our evaluation to CO₂ and O₂ control in one plant growth chamber (PGC) as shown in Fig. 2.1. This subsystem is composed of several components, such as redundant flow regulators that provide continuous CO₂ supply, redundant pulse injection valves that provide a means for increasing the CO₂ concentration rapidly, a light system, redundant O₂ concentrators and the plant growth chamber (PGC) itself.