V N Kubasov | PubMed Health

PubMed1991

Regenerative life-support system development problems for the Mars mission.

An analysis of expediency of using physicochemical and biotechnological complexes of life-support systems has been performed with reference to the most likely trends of manned cosmonautics development for the nearest decades--orbital stations in the Earth orbit, Moon base, and Mars mission. The analysis results have shown that the physicochemical complex is much more advantageous than the biotechnological one for all cases considered. This conclusion is based on significant difference in power utilization factor: 70-90% for the physicochemical complex and 5-10% for the biotechnological one as far as the photosynthesis efficiency is concerned. The selection of the physicochemical complex systems is considered; particular attention is payed to operating reliability and performance.

Biotechnology↗

PubMed1977

Apollo-Soyuz Test Project on biorhythm of zone-forming fungi: preliminary work.

The purpose of the experiment was to study general and local effects of space flight factors on the rhythm of cellular activity and on the morphological and genetic properties of biological objects. The Pushchino strain, Actinomyces levoris Kras 17-225A-IBFM, isolated at the Institute of Biological Physics, Moscow, was chosen as the main biological object. Under appropriate conditions it gives distinct and continuous rings of spore formation reflecting its intrinsic high degree of synchronism in changing its reproduction forms seen with the unaided eye as transparent rings (vegetative growth) alternate with convex white rings (spore-formation growth). As an additional test object, a film culture of bacteriophage T4Br+ developed at the institute was used. The strains were placed together in one bioblock together with plastic detectors for detecting nuclear particles. The film culture of bacteriophage enabled us to amplify the area of registration of local radiation effects by studying the genetic effects of these: frequency of mutations, induced radiation, their spectrum, subsequent revertability under the action of chemical mutagens with known mechanisms of action on DNA molecules.

Actinomyces↗