The MELiSSA Program
MELiSSA (Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative) is ESA’s research programme into regenerative life support: closing the loop on air, water, food and waste so that a crew can live for years without resupply from Earth. Over more than 35 years it has brought together 15 formal partner organisations across Europe and at least 50 other organisations in a variety of collaborations. It has produced more than 450 technical notes, some 240 scientific publications, nine flight experiments and four spin-off companies.
The programme is organised around five pillars, each with its own page in this section:
Ground R&D
The scientific foundation: microbiology, bioreactor design and system modelling that everything downstream depends on.
Flight Demonstration
Scientific precursors and technology demonstrators flown on the ISS and Foton, proving each process actually works in orbit.
Ground Integration & Demonstration
The Pilot Plant in Barcelona and the Concordia station in Antarctica, proving the loop at scale and over time.
Terrestrial Application & Technology Transfer
The same closed-loop thinking, applied to water treatment, agrofood, buildings, the maritime sector and life sciences on Earth.
Education & Communication
Training the next generation of researchers and keeping the wider community informed of progress, which is where the Foundation itself is most active.
The MELiSSA Foundation is a signatory member of the consortium, working in close connection with ESA-managed research, and exists to support education, outreach and communication across this whole ecosystem, and to coordinate projects with external partners.
Consortium
MELiSSA’s consortium is built around 15 formal partners that have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, and…
Scientific Concept
Europe’s leading programme in circular, regenerative life-support systems For more than 35 years, the European Space…
How It All Began
MELiSSA began, almost entirely, with the vision of one person: Claude Chipaux, a space engineer at…
Research & Development
The scientific and technical work behind each MELiSSA compartment.
Flight Experiments
It would be possible to fly a piece of hardware and find out afterwards that it…
Academic Research
The ESA-funded research contracts that keep MELiSSA partner institutions working at the programme's scientific edge.
Ground Demonstration
Before a technology is qualified for flight, MELiSSA proves it on the ground, at a scale…
Terrestrial Applications
MELiSSA was built to answer a very specific problem: how to keep a crew alive on…
Education & Communication
POMP scholarships, MELiSSA Summer Universities, biennial conferences and the workshops that keep the community connected.