Abstract
In this perspectives paper, we identify major challenges for space crop production: altered convection in the microgravity environment, scheduling and logistics, crew time and the need for advanced automation, robotics, modeling, and machine learning. We provide an overview of the existing space crop production gaps identified by the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) space crop production team and discuss efforts in current development in NASA projects to address these gaps. We note that this list may not be exhaustive but aims to present the baseline needs for space crop production implementation and a subset of current solutions to the greater scientific community in order to foster further ingenuity.
Highlights
As humanity ventures into the Solar System and settles on other planetary bodies, movement towards independence from Earth to produce consumables such as food, oxygen, and water will be crucial
Throughout the remainder of this perspectives paper, we present a sampling of the current technologies being explored at NASA centers to address specific gaps, and we discuss their associated limitations and challenges
Deep learning algorithms seem to be a promising solution for hyperspectral data analysis and interpretation (Thomas et al, 2018; Nagasubramanian et al, 2019), provided that they can be trained on a big enough dataset (Zeidler et al, 2019)
Summary
As humanity ventures into the Solar System and settles on other planetary bodies, movement towards independence from Earth to produce consumables such as food, oxygen, and water will be crucial. Large-scale crop growth systems included in bioregenerative lifesupport systems (BLSS) will allow for resource recycling and minimize resupplying from Earth. Several projects have aimed to identify the requirements for Lunar and Martian greenhouses, by assessing their feasibility, and developing concepts, theoretical designs, or prototypes at different scales and maturity levels (Wheeler and Martin-Brennan 2000; Stutte et al, 2009; Boscheri et al, 2016; Furfaro et al, 2016; Zeidler et al, 2017). KSC has a long history in controlled environment crop research. This began with the Biomass Production Chamber (BPC), extends to on-orbit platforms such as Veggie and the Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) and will continue with Ohalo III (a crop production chamber currently in development), with each platform deliberately selected and designed to lead to future crop production units destined for the Moon or Mars (Figure 1)
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