Enhancing HabNet to Support Water Demand Estimates for Human and Scientific Exploration of Mars

Abstract

Establishing a human presence on Mars is a crucial milestone to advancing human capabilities in space and is a high priority for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). An important step toward establishing a continuous human presence on Mars is identifying landing sites suitable for human and scientific exploration. While existing literature primarily focuses on resource availability for ideal landing sites, there is a need for further research to quantify water required to sustain human life on Mars and inform critical early decisions related to future mission architectures, mission timelines, and In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) strategies for human activities on Mars. To address this gap in knowledge, updates were made to the HabNet tool created by Sydney Do between 2013 to 2016 to encompass additional Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) system elements that contribute to water demand. In particular, the Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) and laundry machine models were created in HabNet, and updated metabolic data were incorporated into the crew model. Unit tests were performed to verify that the WHC, laundry, and crew model function as intended, making them readily incorporable in the HabNet tool. These updates to HabNet provide groundwork for conducting an integrated simulation of a baseline long-duration ECLS architecture that can sustain continuous human presence on Mars.