The Bioregenerative Life Support program CAB (Controllo Ambientale Biorigenerativo) is a key element of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) Medicine & Biotechnology scientific program, set forth in the ASI Activity Plan 2006-2008.

The CAB program started in October 2006, under the prime contractorship of Alcatel Alenia Space – Italia, with a feasibility study of a controlled biological system, allowing the regeneration of resources and the production of food for life support in long duration missions.

Main constituents of the program are:

• Higher plants as basic elements for food and oxygen production, CO2 regeneration and water purification via the photosynthetic and leaf transpiration processes

• Biological & physico-chemical systems for environmental control, monitoring, power & data distribution, etc.

The sectors of concern are practically all the ones typical for life support systems in the frame of long duration human missions, i.e.:

• Food production and management

• Air regeneration (Production of O2, Removal of CO2, Trace gas control)

• Water regeneration (Urine processing, Gray water processing, Potable water management)

• Solid waste processing

• Storage of resources

• Control of environmental conditions (Thermal-hygrometric, pressure, radiation, etc)

The main objective will be the development of a regenerative system, maximizing the closure of the cycle and regeneration, including buffering of resources and integrated monitoring and adaptive control.  In support of this objective, it will be necessary to adopt analytical methods and tools for bioregenerative systems, such as balance & stability analysis and metrics.

A key part of the scientific program will be the resolution of space environment compatibility issues:

• Micro & reduced gravity issues with plants and multi-phase systems

• Ionizing radiation susceptibility of living organisms (plants, bacteria)

• Low pressure operations

• Possible psychological benefits for the crew in isolation

Dissemination, outreach, technology transfer and spin-offs will be pursued via workshops, scientific publications, education, web site, media, etc. and quick identification of possible alternative fields for use of technologies.