EcoUnit - Space Exploration Technology for developing countries
- Paper number
IAC-07-E5.1.06
- Author
Mr. Andreas Vogler, Germany
- Coauthor
Mr. Arturo Vittori, Italy
- Year
2007
- Abstract
The absence of resources for life-support is one of the main challenges of future human space exploration. Low-energy, light-weight, safe and easy to operate and maintainable systems have to be developed to enable mission to Moon, Mars and beyond. On the other hand UNESCO reports that 1.1 billion people in the world do not have access to safe water, roughly one-sixth of the world’s population. 2.4 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation, about two-fifths of the world’s population. 2.2 million people in developing countries, most of them children, die every year from diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. Eco-Unit represents a technology development platform, which should bring the challenge of Human spaceflight together with the challenges we face on our mothership Earth. The unit is conceived to provide a local communal unit for water collection, water recovery, hygiene and controlled disposal of human wastes as it would be in a spaceship. Water will be collected over the roof or from a near water source. Solar cells and possibly biogas created by the human waste will provide power to recover potable water and grey water for the toilet. The roof shape is inclined to collect water, when it is raining and provide a good angle for the solar cells. The box has a 2.5m transportation width and will be deployed with inflatable walls after installation, providing the most economic use of space for transportation and local use. The construction is conceived to use a mix of hard and soft materials. The conception derives from current aerospace technologies, although materials will be normal and cheap ones. Hard materials can be made out of wood or protected cardboard. From the hard core a soft inflatable section can be deployed. This is to keep the volume low for transportation. The technology of such an Eco-Unit would also be scalable. That means, it could be high-tech and expensive as well as low-tech and inexpensive, thus an implementation in poor countries would well be possible. The Eco-Unit provides a decentralised system, which would actually save infrastructure and helath costs and immediately provide better living conditions for the people. The paper will describe the project of the EcoUnit and discuss different technologies also in respect to their use in space.
- Abstract document