Reliability of Redundant Autonomous Life Support Systems for Deep Space Habitation

Ensuring reliability of life support systems (LSS) for long-duration crewed space missions is a critical challenge. LSS provide the critical life sustaining functions of atmosphere revitalization, water recovery, waste recycling, food production, and thermal regulation required for multi-year deep space missions. The paper goal is to develop a reliability model to evaluate failure tolerance and identify redundancy requirements in an advanced LSS architecture proposed for space transit vehicle supporting a long time crewed deep space mission. In the paper reliability block diagram (RBD) methodology is used to analyze failure tolerance across different levels and multiplicity of redundancy of LSS architecture. The RBD approach is applied to model the complex interactions of closed-loop air, water, food, thermal and waste management systems needed to sustain crews far from Earth. Results provide insights into redundancy requirements, single-point failures, and reliability benchmarks needed for candidate LSS technologies to satisfy deep space mission demands.