Abstract
Due to logistical challenges, long-term human space exploration missions require a life support system capable of regenerating all the essentials for survival. Higher plants can be utilized to provide a continuous supply of fresh food, atmosphere revitalization, and clean water for humans. Plants can adapt to extreme environments on Earth, and model plants have been shown to grow and develop through a full life cycle in microgravity. However, more knowledge about the long term effects of the extraterrestrial environment on plant growth and development is necessary. The European Space Agency (ESA) has developed the Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative (MELiSSA) program to develop a closed regenerative life support system, based on micro-organisms and higher plant processes, with continuous recycling of resources. In this context, a literature review to analyze the impact of the space environments on higher plants, with focus on gravity levels, magnetic fields and radiation, has been performed. This communication presents a roadmap giving directions for future scientific activities within space plant cultivation. The roadmap aims to identify the research activities required before higher plants can be included in regenerative life support systems in space.
Highlights
Future missions to the Moon and Mars, involving long-term stays in space, rely on a life support system for food production and regeneration of resources
A number of experiments have been successfully performed in a spacecraft, and a full life cycle of Arabidopsis thaliana has been completed on Salyut-7 [16]
The International Space Station (ISS) is located at low Earth orbit: here the radiation consists of galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and solar particles events (SPE), and protons and electrons when passing through the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) of the radiation belt
Summary
Future missions to the Moon and Mars, involving long-term stays in space, rely on a life support system for food production and regeneration of resources. The first plant materials were brought into space in 1960, when seeds of wheat, pea, maize, and onion were flown on board of Sputnik 4 [13]. This was followed by photosynthetic measurements of Chlorella and the duckweed Spirodela [14] and with wheat seedlings and pepper plants on Biosatellite II [15]. A roadmap giving directions for future scientific activities within MELiSSA and plant cultivation in space is presented
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