Updates
2024-02-06: Thank you for submitting your ideas, the submission phase is now closed. Please monitor your ideas for comments through the community discussion until 15th February 2024.
2024-01-25: Idea submission deadline extended by 7 days until 05th February 2024, 23:59h CET.
Background and motivation
Future crewed missions beyond Low Earth Orbit will require considerable amounts of water, oxygen and food and will generate significant amounts of waste. Yet, in space, resources are scarce. They either must be transported from Earth, recycled or produced in situ, all under extreme expenses and limited options. For future missions beyond Low Earth Orbit, it will not be safe to rely on Earth resupply only. Therefore, high attention is paid to the recovery and reuse of resources in space, while also investigating technologies and products robust enough to withstand the space environment. This is further accelerated by the ongoing and growing exploration of space, both in scientific and commercial dimension. Additionally, many national and international organizations are discussing human outposts on the surface of other planetary bodies and advanced space stations which will inevitably lead to increased needs for circular and highly regenerative life support systems.
In more than 30 years of research in the field of alternative life support systems, the MELiSSA (Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative) project, led by ESA, has acquired extensive know-how and competencies, and built a wide network and close collaboration between its partners and a broader international community. MELiSSA is the European project of circular life support systems. It was established to gain knowledge on regenerative systems, aiming to the highest degree of autonomy and consequently to produce oxygen, water and food from mission wastes. The technologies, processes and methodologies developed are now more than ever in line with the growing challenges for long-term human presence in space. As this research initiative is focused on circular systems for long-term space missions, one of the major objectives is to investigate systems that are highly robust and reliable for long-term operations without (or with minimal) Earth resources. In addition, since the nature and the respective dynamics of the processes under investigation are so diverse, the MELiSSA project relies on a mechanistic modelling and a deterministic control approach.[1]
At system level, the elaboration and design of a regenerative life support architecture will widely depend on the chosen mission scenario. To support the evaluation and the trade-off of various life support system architectures,
ESA has developed the ALiSSE (Advanced Life Support System Evaluator) methodology, which provides a multi-criteria approach to assess different life support system architectural solutions throughout their life cycle. The ALiSSE criteria include mass, energy and power, efficiency, crew time, risk for humans, reliability and sustainability (see ALiSSE Metrics Definition in the attachments).
As set forth in ESA's Agenda 2025, now is the moment to harness space technology's full potential, transitioning from knowledge to action and impact. In its role as facilitator and enabler, ESA supports the pioneering of sustainable and circular technologies tailored for space exploration and derivable solutions for Earth's needs.
With the ESA 'Space for a green future' accelerator targeting Europe’s green transition, space holds a key to sustainable, commercially viable solutions that lead to a greener, decarbonized economy and conscious use of resources.
Join us in shaping the future of sustainability through and in space! Submit your ideas today!
[1] Additional information can be found here: https://www.melissafoundation.org/
Credits: The banner picture shows the MELiSSA Pilot Plant - Higher Plant Compartment, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Picture taken by Angelo Vermeulen.
Objectives
This campaign aims to identify ideas, technologies, and methods to address the three distinct challenges listed below, and to accelerate, innovate and enhance the development and potential for commercial products in advanced circular, closed-loop life support systems in space.
Further objectives:
- Discover and nurture commercially viable collaborations and synergies with terrestrial applications.
- Identify commercial technology application and testing opportunities on Earth, leveraging on varying operational scenarios to collect data and feed the analysis of robust system design for closed-loop space-based life support systems.
Challenges for circular technologies
#1 Study of the most profitable biomass composition (i.e., proteins, lipids, carbs, etc.) to be produced by a life support system in regard to the crew's diet spectrum to answer the Mars Transit Habitat food requirements, according to ALiSSE criteria.
Among the very large number of challenges for human missions to Mars, food issues are crucial at quantity and quality level. Today, based on the preliminary diet and engineering requirements (i.e., ALiSSE criteria), several questions can be raised:
- Shall we produce food directly on board the Mars Transit vehicle? Shall we simply transport food provision from Earth? Or a mix of both?
- In case on-board production in considered, which part of the diet shall be targeted? Which processes (e.g., microbials, mammal cells, insects, higher plants, microgreens, etc.) sound the most relevant for a Mars Transit mission? Which substrate shall be used? Which steps shall be considered to transform the produced biomass into a recipe?
These questions are of course associated to upmost engineering challenges such as: production yield, hardware mass, waste management, energy, process and human safety, robustness and monitoring and control in a space environment, where microgravity and radiation cannot be avoided.
#2 Development of waste-to-product routes through materials processing to increase the recycling efficiency of the loop. How can we deal with the non-degradable outputs of the MELiSSA loop?
Critical aspects of crewed space exploration are resupply and waste management, as they directly impact the long term sustainability of the exploration activities, as well as the logistical complexity and the cost of the associated missions. Having the ability to use the resources derived from waste would significantly reduce the dependence on resupply missions and increase the prospect of on long term, sustainable crewed exploration. The proposed ideas shall address the improvement of the waste handling and waste management approach in human exploration missions, tackling, in particular, the issues of resource valorisation, waste biosafety and waste cumbrousness. This will be through proposing studies or technology development activities on solutions to process selected wastes – derived from the MELiSSA loop or from the overall mission – into materials or end products to be used further during the mission. Examples of relevant output of waste processing include tools, spare parts, utensils, containers, feedstock for manufacturing equipment, among others.
The proposed ideas shall address, but not be limited to, the processing of the following waste:
- Lignocecullosic biomass derived from MELiSSA Waste Compartment (C1) and Plant Compartment (4a)
- Spirulina biomass derived from MELiSSA Photosythetic Comparment (C4b)
- Non-usable or non-edible parts from plant growth
- Padding and packaging material
- Food/beverage packaging material
- Parts and materials from end-of-life hardware
Technology developments for the valorisation of waste derived from the MELiSSA loop and from crewed missions in general, directly serve the Earth, in terms of circular economy and sustainability. The use of organic and synthetic waste, to produce bio-compounds would help achieve a sustainable and renewable bio-economy and contribute to a reduction of greenhouse gases and organic and plastic wastes in landfills.
Implementation of ideas targeting the waste-to-product chain will bring the following benefits:
- Reduce the dependence on resupplies and redundancy and thus, reduce future mission costs and complexity
- Provide in-situ and on-demand manufacturing capabilities in long term missions
- Recycling and reuse of materials to enable closed loop system and self-sustainable human presence in space
- Serve Earth for a circular economy: sustainable and renewable bio-economy
#3 Study of the virus and phage risks by the crew towards regenerative life support processes
The MELiSSA project investigates the combined activity of different living organisms: microbial cultures in bioreactors, a plant compartment and a human crew. The use of procaryotes is of particular interest for future exploration missions with respect to the ALiSSE criteria, as they provide a wide metabolic diversity. However, safety of the crew and reliability of the life support system will remain a priority. In this context, the detection and monitoring of pathogens and contaminants is fundamental, either in systems based on complex microbial communities (e.g., MELiSSA C1 compartment) or on pure microbial cultures (e.g., MELiSSA C4a compartment).
This raises several questions:
- In case of contamination, can we evaluate the risk for the crew and the processes involved in the life support system?
- What could be the molecular tools to rapidly and efficiently detect, identify and monitor pathogens and contaminants?
- How can we mitigate the risks and the consequences?
The problematics of virus and phage risks in regenerative life support systems for space applications share several synergies with terrestrial challenges (e.g., in wastewater treatment plants, COVID).
The ESA Discovery Implementation Schemes?
In this campaign we foresee two main implementation paths:
- system studies, and
- early technology development activities.
When submitting your idea, you will be asked to suggest one of these two implementation paths that come under ESA's Basic Activities. You can also select "other" and propose a different scheme, in which case different processes might apply.
If you think that your idea would be best implemented via a small system study (max 100k€), you should already describe the novelty at system level compared to previous system studies and the specific focus you would suggest.
If you think that your idea would be best implemented via an early technology development activity (max 175k€ from ESA), you should already specify the difference that it would provide compared to the state of the art in the specific technical domain. Early technology development activities are typically implemented in two stages (proof of concept, demonstration) with a decision point in-between where ESA will decide on whether the activity should continue. A written statement of industrial interest (customer support letter) by the customer interested in using the technology should be provided for early technology developments. More than one customer support letter is allowed and encouraged. Early technology development activities have hardware in the loop.
Some past ESA activities are listed in the studies and technology development databases listed below. Early technology development activities could also benefit from using ESA engineering and test laboratories.
Scope of expected ideas
Applicants are invited to submit ideas for the identified challenges and in accordance with the laid-out objectives and implementation schemes. One submission is expected for each idea.
The idea proposal should clearly identify
- the challenge addressed,
- the technology/process used or to be investigated,
- the status of development and target TRL,
- a proposed development plan / activity plan,
- the commercial opportunity of the idea,
- the access to the space and/or terrestrial market,
- estimated costs and duration.
The proposed development/activity plan shall include relevant elements among the following maturation aspects such as:
- Technical maturation: solution design, feasibility, breadboard testing and operational suitability,
- Commercial maturation: market study, potential customers, business model, financial projections, market entry strategy.
As guideline, a minimum of TRL 3 is expected prior to the submission of the idea. A implementation timeline of a total maximum of 18 months is expected.
Process
First step: Idea
The first step, is to enter an idea through this Campaign. Ideas considered within the scope of the Campaign will be evaluated according to the below evaluation criteria (see section on Evaluation criteria for Ideas). Please also take note the Special Conditions applying to the submission as listed below.
Any questions to the Agency relating to the first step shall be addressed exclusively via OSIP. If required, the Agency may request clarifications via OSIP.
Authors have at any moment full visibility of the status of their idea (visible above the title of the idea). Ideas move from "qualification" to "community discussion" to "evaluation" to "selection".
Ideas start in draft status and can be stored as such in case information for mandatory fields is still missing. Draft ideas are only visible to authors. As soon as all mandatory information is available, even if not final, authors are encouraged to submit the idea. You can still work on your idea until start of the evaluation.
The first step (idea step) ends with the idea evaluation which is based on below outlined evaluation criteria and the information provided in the idea description.
Please note, that the provision of the ESA Entity Code is compulsory already at idea stage. Not providing the ESA Entity Code within 10 working days after idea selection automatically disqualifies the idea.
Ideas that are successfully implemented will be made public on the ESA website with the title and abstract provided in the proposal step.
Second Step: Proposal
All retained ideas will be invited to the second step to submit a Full Proposal via esa-star:
- Write and submit a Full Proposal through esa-star;
- ESA will evaluate your proposal against evaluation criteria stated in the data pack from the Call For Proposals published esa-star publication. For convenience, these are also provided as attachment of this channel. Please note however that the documents on esa-star shall take precedence in case of discrepancies;
- Successful proposals will be invited to a negotiation meeting and possibly lead to a contract award.
The evaluation criteria for the full proposal will be:
- BACKGROUND OF THE CONSORTIUM WITH DIRECT RELEVANCE TO THE SUBJECT OF THE OSIP CALL (E.G. RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS, ADEQUATE COVERAGE OF ALL EXPERT DOMAINS) [WF 30%]
- COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITY FOR SPACE AND SYNERGY WITH TERRESTRIAL APPLICATIONS (E.G. VIABILITY FOR COMMERCIAL SERVICES OR PRODUCTS IN SPACE; DERIVED TERRESTRIAL PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION; ENGAGEMENT TO DEVELOP A COMMERCIAL PRODUCT/SERVICE.) [WF 15%]
- INNOVATION, QUALITY AND SUITABILITY OF THE TECHNICAL AND/OR SCIENTIFIC CONTENT OF THE PROPOSED ACTIVITIES (E.G. NOVELTY AND ORIGINALITY OF THE APPROACH; TECHNICAL DISCUSSION OF THE APPROACH; DEMONSTRATION OF DIRECT RELEVANCE TO THE OBJECTIVES) [WF 45%]
- COMPLIANCE WITH TENDER CONDITIONS, ADEQUACY OF THE PLANNING AND THE ORGANISATION OF THE WORK, AND ACCEPTANCE OF THE CONTRACT CONDITIONS [WF 10%].
How would selected activities be contractually implemented?
Selected proposals will be implemented in line with ESA's standard procurement approach, which implies the signature of a standard ESA procurement contract (example draft contract (please consult the actual draft contract once you enter the proposal phase).
The milestone payment plan are non-negotiable and need to be accepted when submitting the full proposal after passing the idea selection step.
For economic operators to be eligible for a contract with the Agency, a full registration is mandatory. The full registration, followed by the assignment of a Vendor Code that will be unique for every validated economic operator, is done through the esa-star system. Please note that only the 'Full Registration' allows the contract to be placed with the selected tenderer.
The registration as an ESA entity includes the obligation to subsequently fill in (and update annually) the Agency questionnaire at the following link: https://esastar-em.sso.esa.int.
Future steps
The goal of this initiative is to bring the technology one big step closer to commercial exploitation. The options for further funding to bring it to operational and commercial maturity will be assessed on a case by case basis once the activities are finalised.
The IP will be granted on a non-exclusive basis, free of charge, within the ESA Member States territory during the implementation of the activities. The licensing conditions for the next phases will be assessed depending on the funding scheme and the business case presented by the industry.
The ESA Discovery element
ESA activities start typically with exploratory, low technology readiness level (TRL) activities. These are the ones conducted under ESA's 'Discovery element' (www.esa.int/discovery).
The Discovery element provides ESA and its Member States with information on which to base their decisions about the implementation of new programmes and the future direction of space activities. Please have a look at the breadth of ESA activities as described here: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_News.
Novel good ideas not fitting into any of the implementation paths of the Discovery element could potentially be routed to other, more suitable ESA programmes (see below).
References
Please find below relevant references or sources for past and ongoing activities:
- Discovery & Preparation studies database: https://nebula.esa.int
- Research performed by ESA's Advanced Concepts Team: http://www.esa.int/gsp/ACT/index.html and its published research papers: http://www.esa.int/gsp/ACT/resources/act_papers.html
- Additional information about ongoing activities and research topics in the domain of MELiSSA can be found at the MELiSSA Foundation:
- https://www.melissafoundation.org/
- https://www.melissafoundation.org/page/FULLYVIRTUAL2020
- https://www.melissafoundation.org/page/TOULOUSE2022
