Space AgricultureO. Monje

Air Revitalization Lab

Kennedy Space Center, FL 32899

Technology and Future of In-Situ Resource Utilization Seminar

March 27, 2017

Earth = Our “Bioregenerative” Life Support System

Wheeler, 2016

On Earth, explorers ‘live off the land’• Crew = 33

• 2 years – elk hunting and fishing

• Learned food technology from native tribes

In Space, explorers need in situ Food Production• Space Agriculture enables colonization of space

• Sustainable: minimize logistics of resupply• Supplies: Light, CO2, O2, Nutrients, Water, Soil, Seeds, Plant chamber• Crew Psychological well-being: green Earth

LADA

VEGGIE

Success - use of appropriate technology

• Roald Amundsen – South Pole Expedition – 1911-1912

• Technology Readiness Level - Used TRL 9 technologies

• TRL 9 - "mission proven" through successful mission operations : systems thoroughly demonstrated and tested in its operational environment.

• Dog sleds – ski boots (2yr testing) – Northern Greenlandpolar clothing – sledges – tents – optimized stove.

• Adequate diet to minimize scurvy – crew selection –leisure time for crew morale.

Can life survive/thrive outside Earth? * What limits life in the universe?

• Understanding how terrestrial biology responds to micro/partial gravity will reduce exploration risks to crews by designing countermeasures to problems.

• ISS is a platform where the absence of gravity can be used to probe and dissect biological mechanisms.

• Moon & Mars – surface systems to demonstrate life support technologies

*National Research Council’s 2011 Decadal Survey Report - Recapturing a Future for Space Exploration: Life and Physical Sciences Research for a New Era

Agriculture = f( Plant/Microbial Biology & Engineering )

Research Issues • Sensory mechanisms: Gravity sensing and response to mechanisms in cells, plants & microbes.

• Radiation effects on plants/microbes

• Plant/microbial growth under altered atmospheric pressures

• Spaceflight syndromes: Responses to integrated spaceflight environment, microbial ecosystems and environments, changes in virulence of pathogens.

• Plant – Microbe Interactions

Hardware Issues • Performance: Mitigates spaceflight syndromes for adequate plant growth (TRL).

• Mass, power & volume restrictions

• Role in life support systems

Task: adapt 1g agriculture to fractional g locations

Candidate Watering Systems for Food ProductionPassive

HydroponicSurface SystemsPhase separation

On-DemandMicrogravity Systems

Active

Bioregenerative Life Support Testing around the World

1960 1980 2000

Cadarache, FR

NASA

USSR Military

US Military

University Studies (US, Europe, Japan, Canada, Asia)

Univ. Guelph / CSA

MELISSA / ESA

Aerosp. Lab (Tokyo); Inst. Env. Sci. (IES)

Inst. of Biophysics--IBP (Krasnoyarsk, Siberia)

Inst. for Biomedical Problems--IMPB (Moscow)

NASA (CELSS) NASA (ALS)

Chinese Natl. Space AgencyWheeler, 2016

NASA’s Biomass Production Chamber (BPC)

12

Russian BIOS-3 Facility, Institute of Biophysics in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia

Dr. Iosif (Joseph) Gitelson and Dr. Genrich (Henry) Lisovsky

Uni

vers

ities

Ames

Kennedy

Johnson

Small Companies

NASA’s Bioregenerative Life Support Testing

13

1980 1990 2000CELSS Program ALS / ELS Program

Algae Closed Systems Salad Machine

Wheat (Utah State)

Purdue

NSCORT

Potato (Wisconsin)

Lettuce (Purdue)

Soybean (NC State)

Sweetpotato / Peanut (Tuskegee)

Rutgers

NSCORT

Large, Closed System NFT Lighting Waste Recycling Salad spp. Habitat Testing

Solid Media Pressure Human / Integration

N-Nutrition (UC Davis)

Gas Ex./Ethylene (Utah State)

MIR Wheat (Utah St.)

STS-73

Potato

Leaves

BIO-PlexNever Completed

Biomass Production Chamber

Onion (Texas Tech)

Hypobaria (TAMU)

ISS Mizuna

Utah St./KSC

Lunar Greenhouse (Arizona)

2010LSHS Program

Purdue

NSCORT LEDs (Purdue)

Habitat Demo Unit

Plant Atrium (KSC)

Advanced

Plant

Habitat

ISS

ISS

Wheat

Expmt

SBIRs—Sensors, LEDs, Zeolite, BPS, VEGGIE, Aeroponics, Solar Conc., HELIAC

ISS VEGGIE

Lettuce (KSC)

2030

Cultivar Comparisons and Crop Breeding

Several Universities:

Cultivar Comparisonswheat, potato, soybean,

lettuce, sweetpotato, tomato

←

Utah State:

Super Dwarf Wheat

Apogee Wheat

Perigee Wheat

Super Dwarf Rice

Tuskegee:

ASP GM-Sweetpotato

←

Dwarf Pepper ↑ and Tomato ↓

Recirculating Hydroponics with Crops– Record yields vs Field

Conserve Water & Nutrients

Eliminate Water Stress

Optimize Mineral Nutrition

Facilitate Harvesting

Will this work in partial g?

Wheat / Utah State

Soybean

KSC

Sweetpotato

Tuskegee

Rice / Purdue

Wheeler et al., 1999. Acta Hort.

Plants for Future Space Missions

International Space Station (plant experiments—salad crops)

Lunar Outpost (supplemental foods)

Martian Outpost / Colonies

Lunar Lander (probably no plants)

(supplemental foods ⇨ autonomous life support)

2010 2015 2020 2025 2030 2035 2040 2045 2050

Crew Exploration Vehicle (supplemental crops Mars transit)

Plant Growth Systems in Space

APHZabel et al. Life Sci. Space Res. (2016)

Plant Growth Systems

APH

Zabel et al. Life Sci. Space Res. (2016)

Salad Machine

Light300 µmol/m2s

Nakamura, Monje & Bugbee AAIA 2013

Salad Machine – Transit / Orbit• Scale – Expand from Experimental to Production

• 150 g/d = daily: 25 g salad for Crew of 6• 1 m2 Planting area

• Performance criteria:• Productivity – maximize• Consistency – robust, repeatable• Crew Time – minimal

• Spacecraft• Cabin air – CO2, VOCs• Limited Power & Volume• Water load to ECLSS• Microgravity Effects

Ground Preparation & Parabolic Flights

Payload Integration &Launch

2002 PESTO – BPS – Wheat – 73 d ISS

Actual Experiment

General Developmental Approach to Flight Experiments

Post-Flight &Ground Control

Tair

20

22

24

26

28

Time (s)

1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000 5500

Z-axis g force

0

1

2

No Fan - Wheat

Fan On - Wheat

CO2

H2O

O2

Radiation

Radiative

heat transfer

Buoyancy-driven

Convection – 1 g

CO2H2O

O2

Radiation

Radiative

heat transfer

Buoyancy-driven

Convection – 0 g

The absence of gravity induces physical effects that alter the microenvironment surrounding plants and their organs.

These effects include: increased boundary layers surrounding plant organs and the absence of convective mixing of atmospheric gases. In addition, altered behavior of liquids and gases is responsible for phase separation and for dominance of capillary forces in the absence of gravitational forces (moisture redistribution)

Space-Flight Environment

Monje et al. 2003 Jones and Or, 1998

Space Biology -Shuttle-Mir and Chromex“A single experiment in space, carried out by a given team, may well produce results that are in themselves only marginally valuable. Follow-up studies can be most helpful.”

F.B. Salisbury - 2003

Future Topics in Space Agriculture

Bioregenerative Life Support

Integrate physico-chemical and plant-based life support systems

Scaling Food Production Systems: Media Mass

Growth Media – a consumable• Bulky – containment, aeration

• Multiple plantings in same soil – loss of productivity

• Fungal growth – plant & crew health

• Need fresh growth media

* Soil Amendments ISRU

Plants

Soil

Inedible

Edible

Biochar

CO2

RegolithCH4

O2

hv

CO2

CDRA

Sabatier

Vent

Biomass

*

Make Soil on Surface Systems

Questions?

• 2002 – 73 day mission on ISS – 21 d grow outs• 23 °C, 1500 ppm CO2, 300 μmol/m2s PAR, 65 %RH• 254 cm2 root modules, 1-2 mm arcillite• Measured photosynthesis and transpiration• Microgravity did not affect vegetative plant growth• Mitigated secondary effects of microgravity

Photosynthesis Experiment and System Testing and Operation

Monje et al. 2005

KC-135 - Testing in microgravity

fffffff

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000

Patm (kPa)

80

82

84

86

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000

Tair

20

22

24

26

28

Time (sec)

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000

Z-axis g force

0

1

2

Accelerometer

Plant Chamber

Datalogger

KC-135 - Environment

•ug disrupts buoyancy driven

convective mixing.

•Plant leaves heated up

during ug event

•Heating rate: 0.37°C/20 s

•64°C per hour!

•Forced convection cools leaves

Tair

29.4

29.5

29.6

29.7

Tcanopy27.7

27.8

27.9

28.0

28.1

28.2

Time (sec)

2480 2520 2560 2600 2640

g force0

1

2

KC-135 - Results - leaves

LED Studies

Red...photosynthesis

Blue...photomorphogenesis

Green...human vision

Some References:

Bula et al. 1991. HortSci 26:203-205.

Barta et al. 1992. Adv. Space Res.

12(5):141-149.

Tennessen et al. 1994. Photosyn. Res.

39:85-92.

Goins et al. 1997. J. Exp. Botany

48:1407-1413.

Kim et al. 2004. Ann. Bot. 94:691-697

Light, Productivity, and Crop Area Requirements

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Light (mol m-2 day-1)

Are

a R

eq

uir

ed

(m

2/ p

ers

on

)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Pro

du

cti

vit

y (

g m

-2d

ay

-1)ProductivityArea

0

20

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60

80

100

120

140

Bright Sunny

Day on Mars

33

Bright Sunny

Day on Earth