MELiSSA the minimal biosphere: Human life, waste and refuge in deep space.
MELiSSA (Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative) is a long-term technology program of the European Space Agency. Its aim is to construct autonomous habitats in deep space, supplying astronauts with fresh air, water and food through continuous microbial recycling of human wastes. This artic...
| Publicado en: | Futures Vol. 92; pp. 59 - 70 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Elsevier B.V.
Sep2017
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=125177167&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 125177167 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00163287 FUL jtl: Futures issn: 00163287 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Sep2017 vid: 92 pid: 467 pub: Elsevier B.V. artinfo: ui: 125177167 10.1016/j.futures.2016.12.001 ppf: 59 ppct: 11 formats: tig: atl: MELiSSA the minimal biosphere: Human life, waste and refuge in deep space. aug: au: Walker, Jeremy Granjou, Céline affil: University of Technology Sydney, Social and Political Sciences Program, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, PO Box 123, Broadway, Sydney, NSW, 2007, Australia University of Grenoble-Alps/ IRSTEA, IRSTEA Grenoble, 2 rue de la Papeterie BP 76, St Martin d’Heres, 38 400, France. Research fellow UMR Pacte, Grenoble; research fellow UMR LISIS, Paris Marne la Vallée su: European Space Agency Waste recycling Civilization Closed ecological systems (Space environment) Space tourism sug: subj: Waste recycling Civilization European Space Agency Materials Recovery Facilities Other Waste Collection Closed ecological systems (Space environment) Space tourism keyword: Closed ecological life support systems Minimal biosphere Sustainable futures Waste Closed ecological life support systems Minimal biosphere Sustainable futures Waste ab: MELiSSA (Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative) is a long-term technology program of the European Space Agency. Its aim is to construct autonomous habitats in deep space, supplying astronauts with fresh air, water and food through continuous microbial recycling of human wastes. This article considers how anticipated futures of space travel and environmental survival are materialized in the project to engineer the minimal biosphere capable of reliably sustaining human life: a human/microbe association with the fewest possible species. We locate MELiSSA within a history of bio-infrastructures associated with colonisation projects: refugia in which organisms dislocated from their originary habitats are preserved. Analysis of MELiSSA’s sewage-composting technology suggests that the disordering complexity of human waste presents a formidable “bottle-neck” for the construction of the minimal biosphere, in turn suggesting our dependence on microbial communities (soil, the human gut) of potentially irreducible biocomplexity. MELiSSA researchers think of themselves as pragmatic enablers of space exploration, yet a wider family of space colonisation projects are now imagined in terms of the prospect that the Earth might cease to function as the minimal biosphere capable of supporting civilisation. MELiSSA’s politics of anticipation are paradoxical, promising technologies with which to escape from the Earth and through which it may be sustained. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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