The C.E.B.A.S.-Minimodule: Behaviour of an artificial aquatic ecological system during spaceflight

Population growth and physiological characteristics of microalgae in a miniaturized bioreactor during space flight

“…In order to establish good CELSS which can operate in rational, precise, effective and easily controlled procedure, it is necessary to choose adapted species of organisms to establish highly efficient bioreactor that can realize the main functions of CELSS (supplying oxygen, water and food, carbon dioxide removing, and also making daily life waste reusable). Aquatic organisms were regarded as suitable candidates par excellence in the establishment of CELSS because of their high adaptation to the weightless condition that approximate to their wild condition in water [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Establishment of CELSS by algae reactor was recommended by many researches because of algae's valuable characteristics like high photosynthesis rate, high protein content, fast growth and simple culture condition needed [7,8].…”

A simple closed aquatic ecosystem (CAES) for space

“…Aquatic organisms were suitable for this study because of their ease of adaptation to microgravity which in some respects is countered by their neutral buoyancy in water (Wang et al, 2004b;Bluem et al, 2000;Sychev et al, 2000). For these reasons, we designed and built a simple CELSS with aquatic organisms to study the operation of the CELSS in space in 1996.…”

Real-time studies on microalgae under microgravity

“…However, huge weight, enormousness of the system, plant's long life cycle and special light requirement limited the application of this system in space exploration. From previous researches we assume that aquatic organisms, such as microalgae, is a highly promising way to resolve these problems [2,[8][9][10][11][12] because of their high content of protein and vitamin, shortest generation time (18:9 h), high oxygen production (33 mol=m 3 day) and relative easiness to grow and resistance to changes in environmental conditions. Another promising feature of this system is that it can be integrated into "intensive aquaculture" which can produce large amounts of animal protein in a minimal volume.…”