National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Small Business Innovation Research 2002 Program Solicitations

TOPIC B3 Biomedical and Human Support Research

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B3.01 Advanced Spacecraft Life Support
B3.02 Space Human Factors and Human Performance
B3.03 Human Adaptation and Countermeasures
B3.04 Food and Galley
B3.05 Biomedical R&D of Noninvasive, Unobtrusive Medical Devices for Future Flight Crews
B3.06 Radiation Shielding to Protect Humans
B3.07 Biomass Production for Planetary Missions
B3.08 Enclosed Crew Environment Control

The goal of the Biological and Human Support Research topic is to ensure the health, safety, and performance of humans living and working in space. This includes life support functions such as a healthy air and water supply, food for the crew in future ultra-long duration missions, health maintenance and in-space medical care, radiation shielding for protecting humans in deep space missions, and unique human factors issues of the space environment.

B3.01 Advanced Spacecraft Life Support
Lead Center: JSC
Participating Center(s): ARC, JPL, KSC, MSFC

Advanced life support systems are essential to enable human planetary exploration. These future life support systems must provide additional mass balance closure to further reduce logistics requirements and to promote self-sufficiency. Requirements include safe operability in micro-and partial-gravity, high reliability, minimal use of expendables, ease of maintenance, and low system volume, mass, and power. Innovative, efficient, practical concepts are needed in all areas of regenerative processes providing the basic life-support functions of air revitalization, water reclamation, and waste management, as well as related sensors and controls. Also innovative, cost-effective flight experiment concepts are desired to understand the effect of microgravity and partial-gravity on the operation and performance of advanced life support technologies. In addition to these long duration space applications, innovative regenerative life support approaches that could have terrestrial application are encouraged. Phase-I proof of concept should lead to Phase-II hardware development that could be integrated into a life support system test bed. Efforts are currently focused on the near term missions ranging from International Space Station through an initial Mars mission. Proposals should include estimates for power, volume, mass, logistics, and crew time requirements as they relate to the technology concepts. Areas in which innovations are solicited include the following:

Air Revitalization.
Oxygen, carbon dioxide, water vapor, and trace gas contaminant concentration, separation, and control techniques for space vehicle applications (Space Shuttle, ISS, transit vehicle) and long duration planetary mission applications.

• Separation of carbon dioxide from a mixture primarily of nitrogen, oxygen, and water vapor to maintain carbon dioxide concentrations below 0.3 percent by volume.
• The recovery of oxygen from carbon dioxide with some focus on an approach to deal with the by-products, if any, of the process keeping in mind the above mass, power, and expendables goals.
• Removal of trace contaminant gases from cabin air and/or other system (e.g. Water Reclamation, Waste Management, etc.) using advanced regenerable sorbent materials, improved oxidation techniques, or other methods.
• Alternate methods of storage and delivery of atmospheric gases to reduce mass and volume and improve safety. [Compare to 4300 psia tank storage with a weight penalty of 0.56 lbm of tank weight per lbm of nitrogen gas stored].
• Novel approaches to integrating atmosphere revitalization processes to achieve energy and logistics mass reductions.
• Alternate methods of atmospheric humidity control that do not use liquid-to-air heat exchanger technology (dependent upon the spacecraft active thermal control system) or mechanical refrigeration technology. [Design metabolic latent load is 2.277 kg of water vapor per person per day].

Water Reclamation.
Efficient, direct treatment of wastewater--consisting of urine, wash water, and condensates--to produce potable and hygiene waters.

• Methods for the phase separation of solids, gases and liquids in a microgravity environment that are insensitive to fouling mechanisms.
• Methods to eliminate or manage solids precipitation in wastewater lines.
• Disinfection technologies, both for potable water storage and point-of-use. Techniques for the elimination of biofilm or microbial contamination from potable water systems. Development of residual disinfectants that can be consumed by crewpersons.
• Methods for the treatment of brine solutions.
• Post-treatment methods to reduce total organic carbon from 100 mg/l to less than 0.25 mg/l in the presence of 50 mg/l bicarbonate ions, 25 mg/l ammonium ions and 25 ppm other inorganic ions.
• Physicochemical methods for primary treatment to reduce the total organic carbon concentration of the wastewater from 1000 mg/l to less than 50 mg/l and/or the total dissolved solids from 1000 mg/l to less than 100 mg/l.
• Methods to minimize biofilm formation on fluid handling components, including flowmeters, check valves, regulators, etc.

Waste Management.
Concepts and methods to safely and effectively manage wastes for all future human space missions. Required to perform the following functions: acceptance/collection, transport, storage, processing, disposal, and associated monitoring and control. Actual types and quantities of wastes generated during missions are highly mission dependent. However, for sizing purposes, the "maximum" waste streams have been estimated as follows, based on a 6-person crew): trash (0.56 kg/day), food packaging (7.91 kg/day), dry human fecal wastes (0.72 kg/day), inedible plant biomass (2.25 kg/day), paper (1.16 kg/day), tape (0.25 kg/day), filters (0.33 kg/day), and water recovery brine concentrates (3.54 kg/day). [These estimates are derived from the Solid Waste Processing and Resource Recovery Workshop Report JSC-40193, with the exception of the water recovery brines]. Wastes can also be assumed to be source-separated, since this requirement has been identified for a majority of waste processing equipment.

• Volume reduction of wet and dry solid wastes.
• Water recovery from wet wastes (including human fecal wastes, food packaging, etc.).
• Stabilization, sterilization, and/or microbial control technologies to minimize or eliminate biological hazards associated with waste.
• Microgravity and hypogravity compatible solid waste management technologies.
• Microgravity compatible technologies for the jettison of solid wastes in space.
• Storage devices needed for the containment of solid waste that incorporates odor abatement technology.
• Other novel waste management technologies for storage, transport, processing, resource recovery, and disposal will be evaluated but must be shown to satisfy a critical need for the referenced near term missions (e.g., recovery of critical resources).

Sensors.
Significant improvements in miniaturization, accuracy, precision, operational reliability, real-time multiple measurement functions, in-line operation, self-calibration, reduction of expendables, and low energy consumption and minimal operator time/maintenance for monitoring and control of the life support processes.

• Sensitive, fast response, on-line analytical sensors to monitor suspended liquid droplets, dispersed gas bubbles, and water quality, particularly total organic carbon.
• Other species of interest include dissolved gases and ions in water reclamation processes, and atmospheric gaseous constituents (oxygen, carbon dioxide, water vapor, and trace gas contaminants) in air revitalization processes. Both invasive and non-invasive techniques will be considered.

B3.02 Space Human Factors and Human Performance
Lead Center: JSC
Participating Center(s): ARC

The long-term goal for this subtopic is to enable human space missions of up to 5 years with crew independence, without re-supply. Specifically, this subtopic’s focus is the development of innovations in crew accommodations and equipment; and the development of technologies for assessment, modeling, and enhancement of human performance.

Proposals are solicited that seek to develop technologies that address specific needs:

Habitability factors and working conditions essential for crew well-being

• Human accommodations: Develop design concepts and prototype systems for laundry or dish-washing tasks. The systems should be suitable for operation in micro gravity environments with low water consumption and minimal trace gas emissions.
• Tools to design habitats that include opportunities to vary spatial, visual, acoustic and thermal environments.

Monitoring and maintaining human performance non-intrusively

• Biomechanics and anthropometry data collection and analysis: Develop size or motion measurement systems using wireless or remote sensors. Donning, calibration, and maintenance steps should ensure efficiency and accuracy.
• Minimally invasive and unobtrusive devices and techniques to monitor the behavior and performance (physical, cognitive, perceptual, etc.) of individuals and teams during long duration space flights or analog missions.

Predictive modeling of effects on the crew due to potential spacecraft environments and operational procedures

• Develop computational models of the crew environment and of human performance and behavior to simulate the effects of factors that contribute to (or degrade) long-term performance capabilities. Such models of the environment, individual and group behaviors and performance can be used to simulate and explore the conditions that influence human performance (e.g., fatigue, noise, CO₂, micro-gravity, group dynamics, etc). Such capabilities would include digital models of human operators and routine and emergency tasks that interact in the context of the long-duration human exploration environment.
• New technology for illumination modeling with particular attention to real-time displays of shadowing, glare and bloom combined with predicted energy distribution values to quantify surface illumination and reflection. New technology for illumination measurements and evaluations such as "smart" sensor technology for measurement of illumination, color and surface reflectivity.

Design and evaluation of human-system interfaces for speed, accuracy, and acceptability in a cost-effective and reliable manner

• Automated analysis of computer-user interfaces for complex display systems to conduct objective review of displays and controls, and to determine compliance with guidelines and standards.
• Quantitative measures of the effectiveness of user interfaces to be used for task-sensitive evaluations.
• Tools to build just-in-time system and operational information software to aid human users conducting routine and emergency operations and activities. Such tools might include effective and efficient job aids (e.g., "intelligent" manuals, checklists, warnings) and support for designing flexible interfaces between users and large information systems.

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B3.03 Human Adaptation and Countermeasures
Lead Center: JSC
Participating Center(s): ARC, JPL

Human presence in space requires an understanding of the effects of microgravity and other components of the space environment on the physiological systems of the body. A variety of countermeasures must be developed to oppose the deleterious changes that occur in space or upon return to Earth. This subtopic seeks innovative technologies in two areas: measurement of emboli in the brain, and real time, in vitro, urine chemistry sensors for automated urine chemistry analysis in a "smart toilet."

As launch costs are extremely sensitive to mass and volume, sensors and instruments must be small and lightweight with an emphasis on multi-functional capabilities. Low power consumption is a major consideration, as are design enhancements to improve the operation, design reliability, and maintainability of these instruments in microgravity. As the efficient utilization of time is extremely important, innovative instrumentation setup, ease of usage, improved astronaut (patient) comfort, noninvasive sensors, and easy-to-read information displays are also very important considerations.

Measurement of Emboli in the Brain
A small Doppler ultrasound device [need not be oxygen compatible], emboli recognition system/software, and solid state recorder of detected events. This would be worn in a fashion similar to a Holter monitor and help to monitor blood clots in the brain for those at risk for embolic stroke.

Real time, in vitro, urine chemistry sensors for automated urine chemistry analysis in a "smart toilet"
Real time, in vitro, urine chemistry sensors for automated urine chemistry analysis in a "smart" toilet. Methods for measuring urine volume, composition of electrolytes or other urine components should be capable of real-time measurement without withdrawal of samples - that is, measurements must be made on-line as the urine flows through the waterless toilet in microgravity. The ability to quantitatively measure the excretory products of bone or muscle breakdown are particularly valuable as bone and muscle loss are a persistent problem in the microgravity environment.

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B3.04 Food and Galley
Lead Center: JSC

As NASA begins to look beyond low earth orbit and to plan for future exploration missions, such as to the Moon or Mars, new technologies in food science and food processing will be needed. The impossibility of regularly re-supplying a Mars crew means that the prepackaged shelf-stable food, ingredients, and equipment to provide a complete diet for 6 crewmembers for more than 3 years will have to be carried with them. As the crew remains on the lunar or planetary surface, crops will be grown to supplement the crew's diet especially within the context of experimental advanced life support systems that use plants to revitalize the air and water supply. Hence, methods for processing potential food crops are needed. Areas in which innovations are solicited are:

Long Duration, Shelf-Stable Food
An initial trip to Mars, for example, will require a stored food system that is nutritious, palatable and provides a sufficient variety of foods to support significant crew activities on a mission of at least 3 years duration. Development of highly acceptable, shelf stable food items that use high quality ingredients is important to maintaining a healthy diet. Foods should maintain safety, acceptability, and nutrition for the entire shelf life of 3 - 5 years. Shelf life extension may be attained through new food preservation methods and/or packaging.

Advanced Packaging
The current food packaging used on Shuttle and the International Space Station is not biodegradable or recyclable and thus represents a significant trash management problem for exploration class missions. Waste packaging in Shuttle missions is returned to Earth for disposal and packaging waste for International Space Station is incinerated upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere. New packaging technology is needed to minimize waste from packaged food. An example might be a biodegradable package that can withstand the retort process or a plastic or other packaging material that can readily be recycled to make objects of value to the space flight mission.

Food Processing
Advanced life support systems, which use chemical, physical and biological processes, are being developed to support future human planetary exploration. One such system might grow crops hydroponically and then process them into edible food ingredients or table ready products. Variations in crop quality, crop yield, and nutrient content may occur over the course of long duration missions, posing further requirements to the food processing and storage system. Such variations might affect the shelf stability and functional properties of the bulk ingredients and ultimately the quality of the final food products.

Equipment to process crops in space should be highly automated, highly reliable, safe, and should minimize crew time, power, water, mass, and volume. Equipment for processing raw materials must be suitable for use in hypo-gravity (e.g., 3/8th-g on Mars) and in hermetically sealed habitats. Some potential crops for advanced life support systems include minimally processed crops such as lettuce, spinach, carrots, tomatoes, onions, cabbage, and radishes. Crops that would require processing would be wheat, soybeans, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, peanuts, dried beans, rice, and tomatoes. Examples of possible food processing equipment that could be used in a long duration space mission include:

• Pressing the oil out of peanuts using an aqueous extraction method.
• Producing a nutritive sweetener source from high carbohydrate baseline crops (e.g., potatoes, sweet potatoes).
• Developing equipment that produces food products from rice, potatoes, soybeans, etc.
• A bread machine that has adjustable speeds and rising/baking times.
• Sanitizing salad crops through a highly automated process.

Assurances of food quality and food safety are essential components in the maintenance of crew health and well-being. Food quality and safety efforts should be focused on monitoring the shelf stability of processed food ingredients, on identification and control of microbial agents of food spoilage, including the development of countermeasures to ameliorate their effects. For all food production and processing procedures, HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) must be established.

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B3.05 Biomedical R&D of Noninvasive, Unobtrusive Medical Devices for Future Flight Crews
Lead Center: GRC

Human presence in space requires an understanding of the effects of the space environment on the physiological systems of the body. The objective of this subtopic is to sponsor fundamental and applied research leading to the development of noninvasive, unobtrusive medical devices that will mitigate crew health, safety, and performance risks during future flight missions. Medical diagnostic and monitoring devices are critical for providing health care and medical intervention during missions, particularly those of extended duration. Of particular interest are devices with minimized mass, volume, and power consumption, and capable of multiple functions. Design enhancements that improve the operation, design reliability, and maintainability of medical devices in the space environment are also sought. Of additional consideration are innovative instrumentation automation, ease of usage, improved astronaut (patient) comfort, and easy-to-read information displays.

Major research disciplines include: endocrinology, immunology, hematology, microbiology, muscle physi-ology, pharmacology, drug delivery systems, and mechanistic changes in neurovestibular, cardiovascular, and pulmonary physiology.

Innovations in the following areas are sought:

• Biomedical monitoring, sensing, and analysis (including the acquisition, processing, communication, and display) of electrical, physical, or chemical aspects of a human's health or physiologic state.
• Instrumentation to be used for in-flight and ground-based studies for reliable and accurate noninvasive monitoring of human physiological functions such as the cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, neurological, gastrointestinal, pulmonary, immunological, and hematological systems.
• Noninvasive, biosensors for real-time monitoring of blood and urine chemistry including, gases, calcium ions, electrolytes, cellular components, proteins, lipids, and hormones.
• In-flight specimen analysis to evaluate physiological, metabolic, and pharmacological responses of astronauts.
• Instrumentation to maintain and assess levels of aerobic and anaerobic physical capability.
• Instrumentation to monitor physical activity and loads placed on different segments of the human body.
• Instrumentation to provide quantitative data to establish the effectiveness of an exercise regimen in ground-based research, and to measure bone strain in the hip, heel, and lumbar spine during exercise.
• Assessment of gas bubble formation or growth in the body after in-flight or ground-based decompression, and to prevent or minimize associated decompression sickness.
• In-flight assessment of the metabolism of proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins, and minerals.
• Smart sensors capable of sensor data processing and sensor reconfiguration.
• Small, portable, medical imaging diagnostic instrumentation.
• Virtual medical instrumentation.

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B3.06 Radiation Shielding to Protect Humans
Lead Center: LaRC

Revolutionary advances in radiation shielding technology are needed to protect humans from the hazards of space radiation during NASA missions. All space radiation environments in which humans may travel in the foreseeable future are considered, including low-Earth orbit, geosynchronous orbit, Moon, Mars, etc. All radiations are considered, including particulate radiation (electrons, protons, neutrons, light to heavy ions, etc.) and electromagnetic radiation (ultraviolet, x-rays, gamma rays, etc.). Technologies of specific interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Advanced computer codes are needed to model and predict the transport of radiation through materials.
• Advanced computer codes are needed to model and predict the effects of radiation on the physiological performance, health, and well being of humans in space radiation environments.
• Innovative lightweight radiation shielding materials are needed to shield humans in aerospace transportation vehicles, large space structures such as space stations, orbiters, landers, rovers, habitats, space suits, etc. The materials emphasis should be on non-parasitic radiation shielding materials, or multifunctional materials, where one of the functions is the radiation shielding function.
• Non-materials and "out-of-the-box" radiation shielding technologies are also of interest.
• Laboratory and space flight data are needed to validate the accuracy of radiation transport codes.
• Laboratory and space flight data are needed to validate the radiation shielding effectiveness of radiation shielding materials and non-materials solutions.
• Comprehensive radiation shielding databases and design tools are also sought to enable designers to incorporate and optimize radiation shielding into space systems during the initial design phases.

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B3.07 Biomass Production for Planetary Missions
Lead Center: KSC
Participating Center(s): JSC

The production of biomass (in the form of edible food crops) in closed or nearly closed environments is essential for the future of long term planetary exploration and human settlement. These technologies will lead not only to food production but also to the reclamation of water, purification of air, and recovery of inedible plant resources. Areas in which innovations are solicited include the following:

Crop Lighting

• Sources for plant lighting such as, but not limited to, high-efficiency lamps or solar collectors
• Transmission and distribution systems for plant lighting including, but not limited to, luminaires, light pipes and fiber optics
• Heat removal techniques for the plant growth lighting such as, but not limited to, water-jackets, water barriers, and wavelength-specific filters and reflectors.

Water and Nutrient Delivery Systems

• Technologies for production of crops using hydroponics or solid substrates
• Water and nutrient management systems
• Regenerable media for seed germination plant support
• Separation and recovery of usable minerals from wastewater and solid waste products for use as a source of mineral nutrients for plant growth.

Mechanization and Automation
This system development includes innovations in propagation, seeding, and plant biomass processing. Plant biomass processing includes harvesting, separation of inedibles from edibles, cleaning and storage of edibles (seed, vegetable, and tubers) and removal of inedibles for resource recovery processing.

Facility or System Sanitation
This includes methods to prevent excessive build-up of microorganisms within nutrient delivery systems.

Health Measurement
Innovations are required for development of sensors using miniature, subminiature and microtechnologies for evaluation of all phases of biomass production. Such sensor arrays include wide ranging applications of gas and liquid sensors as well as photo sensors and microbiological community indicators. Innovations are required in all phases of sensor development including biomass fouling, miniaturization, wireless transmission, multiple phase and multiple tasking sensors and interface with AI data collection systems.

Sensor Technologies
Remote, direct and indirect methods of measuring plant health and development using canopy (leaf) spectral signatures or fluorescence to quantify parameters such as rate of photosynthesis, transpiration, respiration, and nutrient uptake. Data acquisition should be non-invasive or remotely sensed using spectral, spatial, and image analysis. System modeling and decision-making algorithms may be included.

Flight Equipment Support
Innovative hardware and components developed to support research in the Space Shuttle and onboard the International Space Station. Biomass production investigations using flight support equipment will be required to meet the demanding requirements for spaceflight operations, meet the rigorous scientific data collection standards, and produce plants in a controlled environment for research purposes and food. Innovations in whole package design and in component designs will be required.

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B3.08 Enclosed Crew Environment Control
Lead Center: JSC
Participating Center(s): ARC, JPL

Advanced Environmental Control in an enclosed crew environment presents a series of challenges as life support goals move to minimize expendables, to minimize crew and ground involvement, and to incorporate biological systems for recycling air, water and solids. The interdependence of environmental processing systems, and the need for reducing operations support costs are included.

There is a need for the development and evaluation of control architectures and strategies which meet these challenges, both by building on current advances in distributed, modular, object-based protocols, and by new advances in integration of agent technology, planning and resource management across heterogeneous systems. This includes:

• Distributed network protocols, including support for fieldbus and intelligent controllers
• Development of ontologies for communication among autonomous systems or control agents
• Software development methodologies for autonomous systems,including requirements management, testing, performance metrics and long-term maintenance support, including development for growth and support for model-based simulations
• Approaches for integration of new controls technology (both hardware and software) with existing, legacy systems
• Fault detection, isolation and recovery across multiple systems; sharing of parameters and data between heterogeneous systems
• Control system failure tolerance
• Planning and scheduling, including reactions to system faults, supporting adjustments to operations, inventory, and logistics due to planned and unplanned maintenance
• Development and integration of autonomous system and inter-system control with crew and ground operations
• Development of architectures that support a range of autonomy, from fully autonomous to fully manual, with the corresponding range of support for human interaction
• Distributed Human-Computer Interface, with support for multiple platforms (handheld, head mounted, voice, etc.)

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