Abstract
Provided that we can solve the bone-thinning problem somehow, human beings should be able to live in space for extended periods of time, as would be required for a Mars mission and as is certainly required if space settlement or colonization is to happen. However, supporting life in space is considerably more complicated and difficult than supporting life on the earth. The classic needs of life—food, clothing, and shelter—take on a very new meaning when considered in the space environment. “Food,” presumably, includes water. It turns out that the most expensive item which needs to be supplied to the space habitats we have now is water, required to keep the human crew and the spacecraft itself functioning. The interior of a spacecraft is conditioned so that the only clothing which is needed is that required to preserve the customary human decency, and so the traditional need for clothing and shelter is transformed into the need to create and maintain a space environment which is suitably cool.
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Reference Notes
The numbers are from H.L. Shipman, Space 2000: Meeting the Challenge of a New Era (New York: Plenum, 1987), p. 329, and from the Life Sciences Report: December 1987, prepared by NASA’s Office of Space Science and Applications, Life Sciences Division (Washington, D.C.: NASA, 1987), p. 44.
Some conceptions of space food are provided by Joe Allen and Russell Martin, Entering Space: An Astronaut’s Odyssey (New York: Steward, Tabori, and Chang, 1984), pp. 75–77.
James and Alcestis Oberg, Pioneering Space (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1986), pp. 184–187.
Oberg and Oberg, Pioneering Space, p. 184.
Harlan F. Brose, “Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) Design Optimization Approach,” in Mireille Gerard and Pamela Edwards (eds.), Space Station: Policy, Planning, and Utilization (New York: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1983), pp. 189–194.
Brose, p. 191; Oberg and Oberg, Chapt. 6.
R. L. Sauer, “Metabolic Support for a Lunar Base,” in W. W. Mendell (ed.), Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century (Houston: Lunar and Planetary Institute, 1985), pp. 647–652.
Space Station Reference Configuration Group, Engineering and Configurations of Space Stations and Platforms (Park Ridge, N.J.: Noyes Publications, 1985), p. 470.
Engineering and Configurations of Space Stations and Platforms, p. 464.
Life Sciences Division, NASA Office of Space Science, Life Sciences Accomplishments: December 1986, and Life Sciences Report: December 1987, both published at Washington, D.C. by NASA. For copies contact Code EB, Life Sciences Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. 20546.
Oberg and Oberg, Pioneering Space, Chapt. 8.
New York Times (24 June 1986): C3.
T.D. Lin, “Concrete for Lunar Base Construction,” in W. W. Mendell (ed.), Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century (Houston: Lunar and Planetary Institute, 1985), pp. 381–390.
Peter Smolders, Living in Space (New York: Ballantine, 1982), p. 2.2; Brose, p. 192; Engineering and Configurations of Space Stations and Platforms, p. 466.
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© 1989 Harry L. Shipman
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Shipman, H.L. (1989). The Necessities of Life. In: Humans in Space. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6104-4_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6104-4_7
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