MELiSSA the minimal biosphere: Human life, waste and refuge in deep space

Walker, J; Granjou, C

MELiSSA the minimal biosphere: Human life, waste and refuge in deep space

Walker, J

Granjou, C

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Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Futures, 2017, 92 pp. 59 - 69
Issue Date:: 2017-09-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Walker, J https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0789-3457	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Granjou, C	en_US
dc.date.available	2020-05-25T19:27:40Z
dc.date.issued	2017-09-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Futures, 2017, 92 pp. 59 - 69	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	0016-3287	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/68833
dc.description.abstract	© 2017 Elsevier Ltd 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.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Futures	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1016/j.futures.2016.12.001	en_US
dc.subject.classification	General Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences	en_US
dc.title	MELiSSA the minimal biosphere: Human life, waste and refuge in deep space	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	92	en_US
utslib.for	1606 Political Science	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/Social and Political Sciences Program
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	92	en_US

Abstract:

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd 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.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/68833