Aerospace Industry: "Clearing the Air: Life Support for Space Exploration"
Jim Knox and David Howard
An engineering requisite for all space travel is to minimize power, weight, and volume because all three translate to mass for any launch system. Compared to near-Earth missions such as the International Space Station, manned lunar outposts and long-duration space travel present additional constraints that stress system engineering. Chief among these constraints is that every system must be robust enough to operate for long periods of time without compromising crew safety, without resupply, and without launch taxing extra mass such as spare parts or a glut of backup equipment. Life support systems are no exception.