Abstract
The possibility of prolonging space missions—and consequently the permanence of humans in space—depends on the possibility of providing them with an adequate supply of fresh foods to meet their nutritional requirements. This would allow space travelers to mitigate health risks associated with exposure to space radiation, microgravity and psychological stress. In this review, we attempt to critically summarize existing studies with the aim of suggesting possible solutions to overcome the challenges to develop a bio-regenerative life support system (BLSS) that can contribute to life support, supplying food and O2, while removing CO2 on the International Space Station (ISS). We describe the physical constraints and energy requirements for ISS farming in relation to space and energy resources, the problems related to lighting systems and criteria for selecting plants suitable for farming in space and microgravity. Clearly, the dimensions of a growth hardware that can be placed on ISS do not allow to produce enough fresh food to supplement the stored, packaged diet of astronauts; however, experimentation on ISS is pivotal for implementing plant growth systems and paves the way for the next long-duration space missions, including those in cis-lunar space and to the lunar surface.
Highlights
Introduction“Space food” has been attracting discussions since 1926, when the Russian scientist Konstantin
The possibility of prolonging space missions—and the permanence of humans in space—depends on the possibility of providing them with an adequate supply of fresh foods to meet their nutritional requirements
AM1.5) [42], produces the results reported by the blue and red curve of Figure 1, respectively
Summary
“Space food” has been attracting discussions since 1926, when the Russian scientist Konstantin. Plant production in a fully functional space greenhouse is the only option able to provide fresh food to space travelers This would guaranty them to be self-sufficient and having a proper dietary intake for months/years for short-duration missions, like low earth orbit (LEO), cis-lunar or lunar surface missions, as well as for long-duration and distance exploration missions, like missions to Mars [3,4,14,15,16]. Research programs such as MELiSSA (micro-ecological life support system alternative) aim to create space growth chambers to contribute to astronauts’ life support, through the supply of water, air and food for long space travels [16,21] In this view, ground-based facilities for simulation of microgravity are valuable and cost-efficient systems for assessing space farming. Agronomy 2020, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW critical knowledge for the long duration space missions including those in cis-lunar space and on lunar surface [29,30]
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