UAB MELiSSA Pilot Plant

Profile boundary

The MELiSSA Pilot Plant at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona is an ESA-linked facility integrating biological and physicochemical processes for regenerative life support. It tests compartments of the MELiSSA loop, including waste conversion, microbial and plant production, gas exchange, water processing, sensors, control, and crew-relevant food-system questions.

Evidence boundary: Official-link review: the UAB site was reachable and describes the pilot plant, MELiSSA compartments, infrastructure, research, education, and ESA context. Closure performance, anomaly history, current experiment access, and transfer to multigenerational habitation were not independently verified; independent review pending.

Potentially relevant capability areas

• Regenerative life-support integration, bioreactors, plant cultivation, water and waste processing, gas-loop control, microbial ecology, sensors, and pilot-scale operations.

Task-specific matches

A match is bounded to one declared work program. It does not establish a partnership, availability, endorsement, or an organization-wide rank.

• No task-specific match is recorded.

Potential fit—not a relationship

Could provide unusually relevant integrated-loop methods, failure data, controls research, and training for closed habitats, while remaining an Earth-supported pilot rather than evidence of centuries-long closure.

Possible bounded engagement, not undertaken: Proposed only, subject to a future fit check and then-current UAB and ESA access rules: study public results, then consider a scoped research visit or experiment only around a defined loop-closure or assurance question. No outreach, facility access, commitment, or funding has occurred.

Fit and engagement risks

• The pilot plant operates with Earth maintenance, replacement inputs, expert intervention, and limited duration.
• Biological loops face contamination, drift, food-safety, stability, and human-health risks at larger scale.
• Facility access, intellectual property, ESA program priorities, biosafety, and research capacity constrain participation.

What would change this profile?

Long-duration integrated mass balances, openly published interventions and failures, independent replication, current access terms, and progressively reduced external support would materially strengthen fit.