Habitability and Environmental Factors: the Future of Closed-Environment Tests

The previous chapters have reported the accomplishments and results from four chamber life support tests completed at NASA Johnson Space Center. Collectively, these illustrate the various interactions of the human with both the habitat and life support systems. Some studies evaluated habitable space as well as air revitaliza-tion, water recycling, and advanced technologies such as sensors. In others, the internal environment was evaluated with respect to specific parameters, including noise and human factors. The role of good health practices such as social/psycho-logical, human factors, and food and nutrition was studied in a collective manner. Remote training methods for humans isolated or distanced from traditional instructional techniques and use of telemedicine systems were evaluated. Five major themes emerged from these four tests that were common to those of previous closed-system human life support test projects (1, 2): • Interdependence of life support systems, habitable space, internal environments, and the human inhabitants • Importance of testing engineering prototype hardware and advance