Abstract
Bioregenerative life-support systems for space have been investigated for 60 years, and plants and other photosynthetic organisms are central to this concept for their ability to produce food and O2, remove CO2, and help recycle wastewater. Many of the studies targeted larger scale systems that might be used for planetary surface missions, with estimates ranging from about 40 to 50 m2(or more) of crop growing area needed per person. But early space missions will not have these volumes available for crop growth. How can plants be used in the interim, where perhaps <5 m2of growing area might be available? One option is to grow plants as supplemental, fresh foods. This could improve the quality and diversity of the meals on the International Space Station or on the Lunar surface, and supply important nutrients to the astronauts for missions like Mars transit, and longer duration Martian surface missions. Although plant chambers for supplemental food production would be relatively small, they could provide the bioregenerative research community with platforms for testing different crops in a space environment and serve as a stepping stone to build larger bioregenerative systems for future missions. Here we review some of NASA’s research and development (ground and spaceflight) targeting fresh food production systems for space. We encourage readers to also look into the extensive work by other space agencies and universities around the world on this same topic.
Highlights
Bioregenerative life support systems (BLSS) have been one of the most enduring life science research themes since the beginning of the space era in the 1950’s (Myers, 1954)
The Advanced Plant Habitat (APH), a quad, locker-sized chamber that provides a wide range of environmental control, was based on Astroculture principles (Zhou et al, 1998) and installed on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017 (Massa et al, 2016; Morrow et al, 2016)
Analyses of nutrient content of red romaine lettuce grown in Veggie found no significant difference between the ground control and spaceflight treatment of each experiment
Summary
Bioregenerative life support systems (BLSS) have been one of the most enduring life science research themes since the beginning of the space era in the 1950’s (Myers, 1954). Opportunities to test BLSS at a relevant scale in space have been limited due to volume and mass constraints of the spacecraft. Modest efforts at space crop production on board NASA’s Space Shuttle, the Russian Mir station, and the International Space Station (ISS) have been underway since the 1990’s, but most have been short duration studies and all have been limited due to volume, mass, and power constraints. Life-support systems for spacecraft and space stations have been based on physico-chemical (PC) principles, some of them regenerative, others relying on resupply (Shaw et al, 2020).
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