[FPSPACE] Tiangong -- is it even feasible?

[jeoberg at comcast.net]

My first estimate for a 2-man crew on a 100-day mission is that
it would take about 1400 kg of consumables -- o2, food and water, 
LiOH scrubbers -- to keep them alive 'open loop'.

Has anyone seen any press reports of Chinese closed-loop
systems tests, particularly humidity recovery (the simplest first
step, that can cut water needs in half) and regenerative CO2 
scrubbers? 

Otherwise, there may well be logistics plans that would allow
such a mission with three dockings -- the Tiangong core vehicle,
an unmanned Shenzhou configured for supplies, and the manned
vehicle with the OM configured as an airlock. Do the numbers add up?



-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: jeoberg at comcast.net 


I have a fundamental question: Assuming a mini-lab mass of 8 metric tons,
on par with Shenzhou, is it even feasible to build a life support system capable 
of keeping a crew alive for six months, say? There are just so many systems
that cannot be miniaturized beyond a certain point, and there's just the mass
of consumables -- quite a high number. How does China intend to accomplish this?
How would it have been done on the USAF MOL, perhaps the best analogy, or
the Korolev bureau's 'Soyuz trains' that were designed to fly without Proton-class
boosters?
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