§ 6.8 NASA Human CELSS Experiments
 Between August 1995 and into 1998, NASA conducted at least four experiments with humans in sealed CELSS facilities for around two months each.
These experiments were conducted in the Johnson Space Center (JSC) chambers as part of the overall technology development effort directed from the JSC and Kennedy Space Center (KSC) projects discussed in the previous section.
Information on these experiments is well covered on the internet at http://pet.jsc.nasa.gov/alssee/demo-dir/ehti3/ehti3.html. (Indeed, during the course of some of those experiments, you can send e-mail to the people in the sealed chambers.)
Note on the word "biosphere"
In some circles, the word "biosphere" is used instead of CELSS to refer to large closed systems. However, just as frequently, the word biosphere refers to Earth or one of Earth's ecosystems, not to space based CELSS systems. For example, if you search databases for the word "biosphere" you will get a lot of hits on remote sensing of the environment on Earth by NASA satellites, and the Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) program. But you will also get hits on Biosphere 2, Bios-3, and Biosphere J, all CELSS experiments for space colonization.
A better database search word is "CELSS" (for Controlled Ecological Life Support Systems ... or alternatively Closed Ecological Life Support Systems).
|