It took a crop of potatoes to keep Matt Damon alive on the red planet in The Martian. And in future...
While human settlements on the Moon and Mars are still to come - along with a planned Mars Transit habitat - the fundamentals of living in space are already being clear.
The aim is to seek out concepts targeting the reuse and recycling of water, food, oxygen, nitrogen and other scarce resources from apparent waste material.
Further to their use in space, these solutions should also have wider uses on Earth, creating synergies with terrestrial moves towards a circular economy.
The International Space Station already recycles all the water it can, including crew urine, sweat, moisture from wet towels, even the humidity from astronauts' breathing.
For more than three decades now the ESA-led Micro-Ecological Life Support Alternative, MELiSSA Foundation has investigated the designing 'regenerative' or closed loop life support systems for crewed missions into deep space.
The wider MELiSSA Foundation has resulted so far in hundreds of academic papers, patents and terrestrial spin-offs in areas ranging from food preparation to water purification and microbial safety - along with numerous experiments flown aboard the International Space Station.
Circular System Design Methodology - relating to the different approaches and design guidelines that can be used to create, simulate and predict robust circular systems.
Circular Waste Management - relating to specific processes for the recycling and reuse of wastes.
Circular Urine Management - including urine recovery/recycling systems and urine to food processes.
Circular Food Management - including biomass production processing/preparation/optimisation, new food sources, food production, recipes, processes and safety.