In human spaceflight, a life support system is a group of devices that allow a human being to survive in space. US government space agency NASA, and private spaceflight companies use the term environmental control and life support system or the acronym ECLSS when describing these systems for their human spaceflight missions. The life support system may supply air, water and food. It must also maintain the correct body temperature, an acceptable pressure on the body and deal with the body's waste products. Shielding against harmful external influences such as radiation and micro-meteorites may also be necessary. Components of the life support system are life-critical, and are designed and constructed using safety engineering techniques.
Read more about Life Support System: Human Physiological and Metabolic Needs, Atmosphere, Water, Food, Microbe Detection and Control, EVA Systems, Natural Systems
Famous quotes containing the words support system, life, support and/or system:
“I believe, as Maori people do, that children should have more adults in their lives than just their mothers and fathers. Children need more than one or two positive role models. It is in your children’s best interest that you help them cultivate a support system that extends beyond their immediate family.”
—Stephanie Marston (20th century)
“Music is of two kinds: one petty, poor, second-rate, never varying, its base the hundred or so phrasings which all musicians understand, a babbling which is more or less pleasant, the life that most composers live.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)
“The lesson should be constantly enforced that though the people support the Government, Government should not support the people.”
—Grover Cleveland (1837–1908)
“New York is more now than the sum of its people and buildings. It makes sense only as a mechanical intelligence, a transporter system for the daily absorbing and nightly redeploying of the human multitudes whose services it requires.”
—Peter Conrad (b. 1948)