How the world's first installation for autonomous survival in space was created in Krasnoyarsk
In the movie "The Martian" the hero had to wait for the next expedition to arrive on the Red Planet with a small supply of water, food and air. American cinema tried to figure out how to do this, and Soviet scientists solved a similar problem even before Andy Weyer wrote a book about survival on Mars.
Half a century ago, a device was created at the Krasnoyarsk Institute of Physics of the SB RAS that would help an astronaut survive on any planet without any special problems and outside help. The revolutionary, unparalleled in the world closed-loop supply system "BIOS-3" almost completely provided the people inside it with water, oxygen, and food. It was enough to take with you a very small supply, and then everything was produced and cleaned by the system itself.
Russian Planet found out how Siberian scientists were able to stay ahead of their time and colleagues.
Breathe with algae
- The first experiments on the creation of closed autonomous life support systems began in Krasnoyarsk in the late 1960s, - the leading researcher, scientific secretary of the Institute of Biophysics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Candidate of Biological Sciences Yegor Zadereev tells the RP correspondent. - Scientists have found that in order for two people to live a year, they need about 300 kg of oxygen, 2.5 tons of water and 400 kg of food. At the same time, over the same period, they will emit 350 kg of carbon dioxide and a ton of waste, which must be recycled. It remained to figure out how to provide them with all this in an environment isolated from the outside world.
Experts conducted experiments and confirmed the hypothesis that the development potential of a living organism is higher than the realizable possibilities. When the unicellular algae Chlorella was placed in ideal conditions, it began to grow much faster and produce more oxygen than in its natural environment, and also more actively recycle carbon dioxide.
Algae in a small tank began to suffice so that a person could breathe normally all day, placing his face in a special hole that does not allow air from outside. So in 1964 they created a system with a closed cycle of oxygen reproduction "BIOS-1", which helped a person to breathe in airless space, for example, in space. Then scientists were able to increase the time spent in a closed room from 12 hours to 30 days. Later, the water exchange was also closed, which made it possible to carry out a 45-day experiment.
However, algae were useful only in order to provide a person with oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide. If there are no other plants in the confined space, then you will also have to eat algae. There may be enough nutrients for the human body, but maintaining mental health on such a diet will be problematic.
In 1966, scientists launched experiments with vegetables and cereals and, as a result, built the BIOS-2 installation. It turned out that if the same wheat is created ideal conditions for growth - without temperature changes, changes in weather, weeds, then it will yield six times a year, and several times more than in natural conditions. Along the way, the researchers established how much wheat must be sown to feed one person.
Bionauts in the bunker
“When the founder of Russian cosmonautics, Sergei Korolev, became aware of the experiments carried out at the Institute of Physics of the SB RAS, he became interested in them and met with the founder and director of the Krasnoyarsk Institute, Academician Leonid Kirensky,” continues Yegor Zadereev. - By personal order of Korolev, who needed an autonomous life support system for the station on the Moon, funds were allocated to continue research. They made it possible in a record short time, in just seven years, to create an artificial BIOS-3 ecosystem.
Krasnoyarsk biophysicists received huge money for those times - 1 million rubles. With these funds, by 1972 they built a special bunker isolated from the outside world with stainless steel walls, the total volume of which was 315 cubic meters. m, and the area is 14x9x2, 5 m.
The bunker was designed to accommodate three people and was divided into four parts. In one there were living cabins with beds, a kitchen-dining room, a bathroom and a working area - a workshop-laboratory with equipment for processing crops, utilizing inedible biomass, as well as systems for additional purification of water and air. The other three parts were for plants. In a confined space and under artificial lighting, algae grew, as well as breeding varieties of soybeans, lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, carrots, beets, dill, cabbage, potatoes, and onions. They regenerated water and oxygen, and also provided the "bionauts" with all the nutrients, vitamins and microelements necessary for their existence. Dwarf wheat with a very short stalk, specially bred by the Krasnoyarsk breeder Henrikh Lisovsky, also grew there: the inedible part of the ear was minimal in size, and there was little waste. She gave a crop of 200-300 centners per hectare. And the Central Asian herb chufa provided people with vegetable oil.
So that people inside "BIOS" could communicate with the outside world, a sealed bunker was provided with a TV and a telephone. A cooling and power supply system was installed.
“In the early 1970s, three volunteers from among the employees for the first time lived in the bunker for six months - 180 days, from December 24, 1972 to June 22, 1973,” says Yegor Zadereev. “All the oxygen they breathed came from the plants they grew. They also processed carbon dioxide. Initially, the available water supply was processed and purified to be used many times.
The next session of communication with testers in the BIOS-3 installation is in progress. Tester V. V. Terskikh (in the window), photo 1973. Photo: photo.kirensky.ru
Participants in the experiment ate vegetables they grew themselves, picked and milled wheat and baked bread from it. So they received 300 grams of bread and 400 grams of vegetables per day. Animal protein "bionauts" provided supplies of canned food and freeze-dried meat. Constant medical observations showed that such a diet, as well as processed and purified water and air, did not adversely affect the health of the volunteers.
The experiment lasted only six months. It became clear that there was no point in continuing it: the closed life support system created in BIOS works flawlessly. An artificially created conveyor for the production of water, oxygen and food does not fail. Of course, provided that a large amount of electricity comes from outside, but this problem in space or on any of the planets is easily solved with the help of a nuclear power plant or solar panels.
A year behind a sealed door
At the station "BIOS-3", which simulates an extraterrestrial settlement, 10 experiments on autonomous survival took place. Crews of one to three people took part in them. Engineer Nikolai Bugreev lived in BIOS-3 longer than the rest of the "bionauts" - a total of 13 months.
In 1968, the Krasnoyarsk development was considered at the XIX Congress of the International Astronautical Federation as one of the possible prototypes of a biological system for ensuring the life of people at a new stage in space exploration - during long expeditions. This has become a worldwide recognition of the achievements of Siberian biophysicists.
Scientists had to solve one more fundamental problem - how to provide people in a confined space with not only plant food, but also protein food. One of the creators of BIOS-3, Academician Iosif Gitelzon, put forward a revolutionary idea at that time - to use genetically modified plants for this, which would produce the desired animal protein. The problems of natural utilization of plant biomass and the return of salt excreted from the human body to the intrasystemic mass exchange also remained unresolved.
Scientists decided to repeat a successful experiment on Earth in space. The Krasnoyarsk Institute began to prepare the first containers for growing plants in zero gravity, but then perestroika broke out. Due to the complete lack of funding, the unique research that had no analogues in the world at that time had to be stopped, and BIOS-3 was mothballed.
From left to right - participants of the 6-month experiment in BIOS-3: M. P. Shilenko, V. V. Terskikh, N. I. Petrov, photo 1973. Photo: photo.kirensky.ru
Desert ark
Only 15 years later, in 1985, an attempt was made in the United States to conduct a similar experiment.
With the money of the multimillionaire Ed Bass, a giant base "Biosphere-2" was built in Arizona from airtight domes covering an area of 12 thousand square meters. m. On this vast territory, scientists have reproduced terrestrial landscapes - desert, tropical forest, savannah, even a small ocean with a coral reef, planted plants and brought in hundreds of animal species. It was assumed that all this would grow and multiply by itself and provide the volunteers of the experiment with everything necessary for life.
“However, very soon it became clear that there was a critical lack of oxygen, we had to open the windows so that air could enter from the outside,” says Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Biological Sciences Sergei Olenin. - Then the plants began to hurt and die, some species of animals died out. An incredible number of cockroaches and ants bred. There was not enough food, it had to be brought in from outside. Two years later, the experiment was terminated, although the creators of "Biosphere-2" hoped that the artificial ecosystem could exist in an autonomous mode for at least 100 years.
After an unsuccessful first attempt, American researchers made changes to the artificial world they created and launched a second experiment in 2007. However, it was terminated for another reason: one of the members of the new team of volunteers attacked others during an argument. After that, the investor lost interest in the project, and now this "Noah's Ark" in the middle of the desert is visited only by tourists.
- Last year, another experiment in autonomous survival was carried out in China. It was named "Lunar Palace-1", - continues Sergey Olenin. - Scientists, who actually completely repeated the Krasnoyarsk studies, managed to provide the participants with all the necessary food by 75% due to the fact that the need for protein was satisfied by the worms they were growing. So they managed to live offline for three months.
A world to experiment
Now the European Space Agency has begun to show interest in Krasnoyarsk research. With the money received in the form of grants, small experiments are carried out at the Institute of Biophysics of the SB RAS, modern equipment is purchased for the bunker, built in the late 1960s. An artificial soil-like substrate is created for growing plants. Experiments are underway on the physicochemical technology of decomposition of organic substances to mineral substances, which can be returned to circulation in the form of salts for plant growth. The use of land snails for the production of protein needed by humans is being studied.
However, there are not enough funds for full-scale research - this requires several tens of millions of dollars. Everyone understands that it is necessary to resume work on the creation of closed life support systems, since without them there can be no question of serious space exploration, but everything depends on finances. BIOS-3 is empty. Although this is the most successful experimental system, it fully satisfies human needs for water, air and plant food through a closed biological cycle. It could already be used, albeit not yet on Mars or other planets, but on Earth. Indeed, with its help, it is possible to reduce the damage to the environment hundreds of times, which is inevitably caused by humans, since BIOS-3 allows you to consume a minimum of resources and produce almost no waste. Closed-loop houses would drastically reduce the burden on the environment, and could also provide people with everything they need where it is difficult or expensive to reach, for example, in remote arctic zones, deserts or in the highlands, under water.
- Another option for using "BIOS" is to carry out experiments in it, which no one in the world is conducting yet. Everyone is just talking about what will happen if, for example, the level of methane in the atmosphere reaches a critical level. Will there be a disaster or not? And in Krasnoyarsk, they may not talk about it, but check what will happen as a result in a small closed ecosystem, says Sergei Olenin. - And this is just one of the possible experiments, which may not even have enormous, but colossal significance for all of humanity. It is possible to study the processes of the circulation of substances in the biosphere of the Earth, and not only help people survive on other planets.
