Modeling a lunar base mushroom farm

Abstract

To calculate the equivalent system mass of mushrooms, a conceptual configuration of a mushroom farm as part of a bioregenerative life support system on an inhabited lunar base was designed. The mushroom farm consists of two connected modules. Each module is a double-shell rigid pipe-in-pipe aluminum structure. The first module is used to prepare and sterilize the substrate, while the mushrooms are sown and grown in the second module. Planned productivity of the mushroom farm is 28 kg of fresh mushrooms per one process cycle lasting 66 days for 14 consumers. Mushroom production can be increased using additional modules.The calculated equivalent system masses of the mushroom farm and the mushrooms produced therein is 88,432 kg and 31,550 kg per 1 kg of dry mushrooms in one process cycle, respectively. At that, the biggest contributor to the equivalent system mass of mushrooms is the total pressurized volume of the farm – 68%. The results obtained may be a prerequisite for performing trade-off studies between different configurations of mushroom farm and calculating a space diet using the equivalent system mass of mushrooms.