Providing Tailored Crop Recipes, So Clients Can Hit the Ground Running

By Rebekka Boekhout

July 8, 2021

“You could best divide our products and services into three parts, being: external research and in-house contract research in our R&D labs, providing total indoor farming solutions, and collaborating in research projects,” explains Maarten Vandecruys, co-founder and CTO at Urban Crop Solutions (UCS). 

The Plant Biology team

UCS, a Belgian pioneer company in the indoor farming scene, recently made headlines with the announcement that the research consortium with whom they are developing the next generation of bread products to support future space missions, SpaceBakery, won the Gold Prize at the Global Space Exploration Conference. But intergalactic missions aren’t the only thing on the company’s mind…

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UCS's ModuleX growing solution in action

Tailored recipes
“We are already looking into expanding our Research Centre due to the high demand for our contract research services, and our indoor biology research expertise. Our added value is to provide a completely tailored plant recipe as part of our end-to-end solution offering,” said Maarten. Normally, a product will be delivered and it’s up to the customer to see how the product works. However, UCS firmly believes that aftercare delivers the best results.

Depending on the crops to be grown, the client first has to give certain specifics about the preferred crop. Then UCS will look into its existing growing recipes, and whether it fits their needs. Eventually, if it’s something new or deviating from it, then UCS starts research on finding the best growing envelope for the client. “We’d rather sit down with them, providing the right solution so clients can hit the ground running,” Maarten notes.

Read the complete article here

For more information:
Maarten Vandecruys, Co-founder & CTO
Urban Crop Solutions
maarten.vandecruys@urbancropsolutions.com
www.urbancropsolutions.com

USA - MIAMI, FLORIDA: Three Local Men Hope To See Their Work On ISS

By Community News Releases

July 7, 2021

Three South Florida men with diverse backgrounds — and all volunteers at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden — have teamed together in a unique collaboration to design a plant-growing method that they hope will someday be found on the International Space Station (ISS).

It’s all part of the nationwide Growing Beyond Earth Maker Challenge that calls for contestants in three team categories — High School, College and Professional — to submit designs for growing plants in space. Six finalists remain out of the 60 original submissions in year two of the three-year contest.

Jack Hahn, a photographer, heard about the program while working as a volunteer in the Fairchild Imaging Lab, was intrigued and submitted a proposal to grow “veggies in space that do well in microgravity.” His proposal impressed the judges — Dr. Gioia Massa, NASA Plant Research; Trent Smith, NASA Procurement, and Ralph Fritsche, NASA Veggie Project Manager — and he became one of the six finalists in the Professional (non-collegiate) category.

According to Dr. Carl E. Lewis, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden director, each year of the competition is intentionally getting more challenging.

“We have been involved in this program with NASA for years, after conversations about the challenge of growing plants in space,” Lewis said. “Year One was about how to make the best use of limited growing volume on a space craft. This year is about automation. Can you set it and forget it? Next year will be about robotic planting and harvesting. We’re looking forward to seeing what you [contestants] come up with.”

After Hahn was selected for phase two of the competition, the Kendall resident realized he needed more assistance.

“I was very excited to hear that I was a finalist,” said Hahn, husband of Marjorie Hahn, executive and music director of the South Florida Youth Symphony. “But I realized that I needed to put together a team with various skill-sets and talents to go further.”

So, in May, Hahn met with the other two Fairchild volunteers who responded to an email he sent — Coconut Grove’s Nic Brunk, a molecular biologist (and crew coach for the Miami Beach Rowing Club), and Shenandoah’s Allen Diehl, a photographer with a degree in mechanical engineering.

Their goal is to grow high-density vegetables (with a high Vitamin K benefit) in a limited amount of space (a 50 cm cubic growing environment) using an autonomous system that won’t require any further human interaction (after initial seed planting) over a 30-day period.

Together, the three South Florida “scientists” have come up with an eye-catching design (with the limited constraints on size per NASA’s specs) that, well, looks like something from outer space. It has three levels (heights) for the difference phases of growth of the red romaine lettuce most competitors are using.

And, in a bold move they hope will impress the judges — and be used in future growth models in space — the threesome is growing their plants hydroponically.

“Even though you think of ‘weightlessness’ in space, weight is everything, including in the space shuttle bringing supplies to the ISS,” Brunk said. “Soil is weight and messy to deal with, especially in space.”

Diehl said, “Hydroponics is definitely the way to go. It eliminates the soil factor, and you can recycle or repurpose the water.”

Basically, the automation model the threesome has developed works by small computer, which turns the growing lights on/off, and activates fans and pumps. Additional automation to replenish the nutrient solution levels will follow.

But all three agree that the small monetary prize which awaits the winner of the NASA/Fairchild collaboration, which will be announced in July/August of this year, is not the reason for the countless hours of sometimes tedious work.

“This competition will provide NASA with valuable input and data, which will someday enable those on the International Space Station as well as Moon and Mars missions with a means of complimenting their diet while giving them something live and green to look at in a sterile environment,” Hahn said. “It will be great to know that our team had something to do with that.”

Lead photo: Jack Hahn (left) has joined with Nic Brunk (center) and Allen Diehl in the Growing Beyond Earth Maker Challenge to find effective ways to grow plants in space.

How The International Space Station Helps NASA Study Plant Growth In Space

As NASA plans long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars, a key factor is figuring out how to feed crews during their weeks, months, and even years in space.

Food for crews aboard the International Space Station is primarily prepackaged, requires regular resupply deliveries aboard cargo spacecraft, and degrades in quality and nutrition after about 18 months. But what if astronauts could grow some of their own food in microgravity? Researchers on Earth and crews aboard the International Space Station are exploring the idea by testing various crops and equipment to see if the plan could work.

NASA hopes to successfully grow fresh, pick-and-eat crops that are easy to produce and do not require a lot of extra equipment or precious electrical power. “Crews really seem to enjoy growing the food themselves,” said Howard Levine, chief scientist for NASA’s International Space Station Research Office at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “It’s a nice reprieve from typical activities on the station, and astronauts often volunteer their free time to do it.”

To date, NASA has grown a variety of plants, including lettuces, mustard varieties, and radishes – and learned a lot about how to successfully do so in the process.

Here are seven aspects of plant growth they are studying aboard the space station:

1) Picking the right plants
What grows well on Earth may or may not do so well in space. Before sending a crop to space, scientists must identify which plants to test aboard the space station. To improve that process, NASA started a project in 2015 with the Fairchild Botanical Garden in Miami called “Growing Beyond Earth.” The program has recruited more than 230 middle and high school science classes across the U.S. to grow different seeds using special equipment. Seeds that grow well in the classrooms are then tested in a chamber at Kennedy that closely resembles the space station’s equipment. Selected seeds that do well at Kennedy are then sent to the station. How they grow in orbit can inform the selection of plants for long-duration missions only minimal crew attention.

2) Learning to garden in space
Plants need a place to grow, and NASA has tested out a number of facilities to host a microgravity garden. One way is by experimenting with the Vegetable Production System, or “Veggie,” which is a simple, low-power gardening chamber that can hold six crop plants. Seeds are grown in small fabric “pillows” placed in Veggie. Crews then look after and water the plants by hand, similar to caring for a window herb garden on Earth. 

NASA is developing another system, called the Passive Orbital Nutrient Delivery System, or PONDS, to work with the Veggie platform. PONDS replaces the seed pillows with a new plant holder that automatically feeds and waters the produce, but still requires the crew to do some cultivation tasks. Research also uses a hands-off system called the Advanced Plant Habitat. This fully automated device is designed to study the physiology of how plants grow in space in ways that require only minimal crew attention.

3) The right light
The composition of light that shines on plants can affect their size, nutritional content, microbial growth, and taste. Plants particularly rely on red and blue light to grow. Researchers ran experiments aboard the space station to see how different ratios of red and blue light influenced plant development in space. The experiments showed that plants in space grow well under the same light conditions preferred by plants on Earth. While green lights are not necessary for plant growth, they are included in plant growth systems so the plants also appear similar to those grown on Earth.

4) The influence of gravity 
Changes in gravity can affect how plants grow and how many crops they yield. Plants can sense gravity using a mechanism that involves changes to calcium within their cells. Astronauts recently ran experiments aboard the space station to measure how microgravity affects these calcium levels, which could offer clues for designing improved ways of growing crops for food in space.

In the PESTO experiment, crews grew wheat plants to see how microgravity may change some of their key features. They found that microgravity alters leaf development, plant cells, and the chloroplasts used in photosynthesis, but did not harm the plants overall -- in fact, wheat plants grew 10% taller compared to those on Earth.

Station crews also successfully grew two generations of mustard plants using the Advanced Astroculture chamber for an experiment that showed the change in gravity caused seeds to be smaller and secondary branches and seed pods to grow differently. Additionally, the experiment grew soybeans from seed-to-seed in space, which produced larger plants and seeds.

5) Water delivery
One significant challenge to growing plants in microgravity is providing enough water to their roots to keep them healthy without drowning the plants in too much water. Numerous experiments have tested a variety of methods to achieve this, including the new PONDS facility mentioned above and the Plant Water Management experiment. The water management study demonstrated a hydroponic method for providing water and air to the root zone to help them grow. Researchers are growing plants both aboard the space station and on Earth to compare how well they develop.

6) How old is too old?
Future space missions could go on for years, which means the seeds that astronauts bring along could be far from fresh by the time they need to plant them. On Earth, seeds have a decrease in viability and germination over time. But how do the age of seeds and long-term exposure to the spaceflight environment affect their ability to germinate and grow? To find out, in January 2021 NASA grew lettuce and seeds from the cabbage family (kale, mustard, and bok choi) that had been aboard the station for nearly three years. The results showed that while the lettuce seeds did not grow well compared to seeds that had been in space less time, the mustard seeds responded better than expected to the storage time in space.

7) The human effect
Gardens need tending, of course, which means astronauts or robots have to look after the plants that are growing. NASA studied how gardening in space could contribute to the behavior and well-being of astronauts. Many astronauts reported they found caring for the plants a fun and relaxing activity.

“Taking care of plants can also help astronauts stay in touch with the life cycles on Earth,” said Gioia Massa, a life sciences project scientist at Kennedy. Massa’s research focuses on growing plants aboard the space station.

What’s more, astronauts say the time spent gardening makes them excited to eat the fresh produce once it’s ready. The excitement motivates astronauts to creatively use the produce as ingredients in their meals, increasing their quality of life in space and boosting their morale.

For more information:
NASA 
www.nasa.gov 

8 Apr 2021

How To Grow Better Lettuce … In Space

Larissa Zimberoff

March 27, 2021

(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- The key to better eating on Mars might be a technology whose main commercial use today is enhancing the colors on television screens.

Quantum dots, or QDs, are tiny man-made particles whose properties can be manipulated so they emit specific colors when exposed to light. In consumer electronics, this proves useful for making brighter, more energy-efficient screens. In agricultural settings, quantum dots can be integrated into films that convert sunlight to orange and red light, colors that boost plants’ photosynthetic efficiency.

Directing the light from high-intensity lamps through a film-coated in quantum dots increased leaf size and yield in romaine lettuce by 13% in a recent study published in the journal Communications Biology. (The type of romaine the researchers used is called “Outrageous.”) Such films could significantly improve the prospects of extraterrestrial crops, by converting the ultraviolet radiation common in space into light that’s nourishing to Earth plants. It puts a new spin on the long-standing assumption that the way to higher yields is more light. Now growers can turn the light they already have into something better.

The NASA-funded study was conducted by the University of Arizona and UbiQD Inc.—pronounced “ubiquity”—a New Mexico-based startup that makes the film. Gene Giacomelli, a professor of horticultural engineering at the university who oversaw the study, says the technique is attractive because it requires no energy to operate, needs only lightweight materials, and can be easily installed. He’s confident it could be used to grow food on the moon, where he envisions densely packed rows of lunar lettuce. “They’ll grow to a foot tall,” he says. If we create a way for people to survive on the moon or Mars, “then I’m quite sure the plants would thrive, grow, and produce.”

© Photographer: Cassidy Araiza for Bloomberg Businessweek tech_food_07 This image can only be used with attached article for period of 90 days from publication

For now, there aren’t enough humans living in space to support a market for salad. Until that happens, UbiQD is primarily selling its films to agricultural clients on Earth. The company has conducted more than 60 trials, including the largest cucumber grower in North America and a tomato grower in Spain that reported a 20% yield increase in one crop cycle.

UbiQD produces rolls of film that are 4 feet wide, and it’s working on a 60-foot-wide version that would be more useful in large-scale agricultural operations. UbiQD, which has partnered with Solvay SA, an industry leader in producing greenhouse films, closed a $7 million Series A funding round in December. Nanosys Inc., the largest manufacturer of quantum dots, joined the round as a strategic investor.

“I believe that advanced materials underpin every technological advancement in the history of civilization,” says Hunter McDaniel, a former materials scientist at New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Lab who is UbiQD’s founder and chief executive officer. He hopes to use the prospect of space as a way to make quantum dots seem like an essential part of any serious growing operation. “What’s the ultimate in ubiquitous if not going off the planet?” he asks. “You leave the planet, you’re in the lead.”

It wouldn’t be the first time NASA’s research affected Earth-bound agriculture. The agency was early in funding tests of LED lights, which have been adopted by vertical farms—indoor facilities with growing trays stacked high on top of one another. Vertical farmers spent more than $1.2 billion on LED lighting in 2019, according to Emergen Research.

Margins in farming are very low, so any technique that can squeeze additional yield is attractive. But many operations are wary of new capital expenses. UbiQD’s film costs about $3 a square foot and has no operational costs. McDaniel says most customers can earn back their investment within two years, though more profitable crops, such as cannabis, may do so in a single season.

Although persuading a traditionally conservative industry to invest in QDs has been slow going, UbiQD thinks the market could be significant. For his part, Giacomelli is halfway through a study for NASA testing varieties of light specifically tuned for different crop types. “There’s going to be a recipe for every plant, every variety, and every age,” he says.

Lead photo: © Photographer: Cassidy Araiza for Bloomberg Businessweek tech_food_grid

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

Training Artificial Intelligence To Track Greenhouses in Antarctica and Mars

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FEBRUARY 17, 2021

by Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology

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Credit: Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology

Scientists from the Skoltech Center for Computational and Data-Intensive Science and Engineering (CDISE) and the Skoltech Digital Agriculture Laboratory and their collaborators from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that enables processing images from autonomous greenhouses, monitoring plant growth and automating the cultivation process. Their research was published in the journal IEEE Sensors.

Modern technology has long become a fixture in all spheres of human life on Earth. Reaching out to other planets is a new challenge for humankind. Since greenhouses are likely to be the only source of fresh food for Mars space crews and settlers, development of artificial intelligence (AI) and computer-vision-based technologies for plant growth automation is perceived as a priority research target. A test site is already in place for developing and testing advanced life support systems: An autonomous plant cultivation module is operating at the Antarctic Neumayer Station III near the South Pole. Right now, scientists are focusing on creating an AI system that could collect information about all the plant growth factors and seedling health and control greenhouses in autonomous mode without human involvement.

"One cannot maintain continuous communication with Neumayer III, and training computer vision models onboard requires too many resources, so we had to find a way to send a stream of plant photographs to external servers for data processing and analysis," Skoltech Ph.D. student Sergey Nesteruk explains.

As a conclusion to their research, the Skoltech team processed a collection of images from remote automated systems using their new approach based on convolutional neural networks and outperforming popular codecs by over seven times in reducing the image size without apparent quality degradation. The researchers used the information from the reconstructed images to train a computer vision algorithm which, once trained, is capable of classifying 18 plant varieties according to species at different stages of development with an accuracy of 92%. This approach makes it possible to both visually monitor the system operation and continuously gather new ML model training data in order to enhance the models' functionality.

There are plans to deploy and test the new systems right on Neumayer III, which will mark an important step towards automation of plant growing modules, thus removing yet another roadblock on the way to Mars.

Lead photo: Plant cultivation module in Antarctica. Credit: Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology

NASA's Challenge To Grow Food In Space Can Win You Up To $500,000

NASA has launched a 'Deep Space Food Challenge' to prompt innovation of food production techniques and technologies viable in outer space.

Image from: Deep Space Food

There are thousands of bizarre challenges doing the rounds on the internet. These unique challenges soon go viral on the internet, with countless participants hopping on board. A number of these challenges also involve some form of food. If you're a food innovator who's looking for the next interesting challenge to take up, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) may have something for you.

The NASA, in collaboration with Canada's CSA (Central Space Agency), has launched a 'Deep Space Food Challenge'. The one-of-a-kind competition seeks to find food production technologies which are sustainable in long duration missions to outer space.

Our cargo resupply missions can only go so far! That's why we need your help to design a food system to keep our astronauts feed during long duration space exploration.

Check out the @NASAPrize Deep Space Food Challenge: https://t.co/9mxtZXbwaC pic.twitter.com/izU8nSqPDc

— NASA Wallops (@NASA_Wallops) January 30, 2021

A short video explaining the purpose behind the challenge was shared by the official handle. The 56-second clip elaborated on how astronauts embarking on lunar space exploration missions usually rely on pre-packaged meals or resupply of food through shuttles from Earth.

Thus, creating a brand, new food production system with minimal input and nutritious output with minimal wastage can go a long way in fuelling longer duration space explorations. The challenge's focus is on identifying food production technologies that can help feed a crew of four astronauts and help fill food gaps for a three-year round-trip mission with no resupply required from Earth.

These innovative food production methods may also help communities on Earth living in harsh conditions and extreme climates. This could also help tackle food insecurity in the future, which is one of the biggest issues that loom large today. "Solutions identified through this Challenge could support these harsh environments, and also support greater food production in other milder environments, including major urban centres where vertical farming, urban agriculture and other novel food production techniques can play a more significant role," stated the Deep Space Food Challenge's official website.

.@NASA & @csa_asc are launching a Deep Space Food Challenge to develop food production tech in space.

Hey @GuyFieri, how about Diners, Drive-Ins, Dives & Deep Space? #STIdocs #Flavortown 🚀🥘

Read about it: https://t.co/fnz80uwpJT

See research: https://t.co/18q6RG3L2G pic.twitter.com/lSRTiiAFes

— NASA STI Program (@NASA_STI) January 28, 2021

Registrations for the challenge close on 28th May, and submissions are due 30th July, 2021. Winners of Phase 1 of the challenge will be announced in the month of September this year. The prize money for winners of Phase 1 can go up to USD 500,000 (Rs. 3.64 crores approximately). So, if you have an exciting idea to produce food which could help future space missions - you know what to do!

Russia Invents New Way To Grow Vegetables In SPACE

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RBTH
26 Dec 2020

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Space wheat, peas, onions, and lettuce... dreams of planting your own food in space have taken a huge leap forward. And it's all thanks to a small step by a clever new system.

How do you grow something in space when there's no gravity, electromagnetic field or sunlight? For more than 50 years, scientists from different countries have been trying their best to solve the problem. Some experiments were even somewhat successful. But now, for the first time, we have a way to grow a large amount of vegetables in space at once.

It's all in the tubes

"A vitamin space greenhouse" is how they refer to 'Vitacikl-T' - a titanium tube setup that allows a conveyor-belt system to grow vegetables aboard the International Space Station. It was developed after Russia lost it’s own 'Lada' greenhouse in 2016: its modified version then made it into orbit, before blowing up together with the Progress spacecraft.

The construction consists of a spinning drum with six root modules. Planting takes place in the first module, followed by another in four days, and so on. In 24 days, you get a harvest in the first module, which gets collected, before the module is refilled with new seeds. The operations are performed in a cycle, one taking place every 44-66 days and, for the time being, this type of setup has been able to produce bigger and better results than any other foreign-made space gardens.

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'Vitacikl-T' - Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) RAS

Another invention here is the titanium porous tube system, which penetrates the artificial soil the way arteries do, in order to carry water.

"You can't just water plants in space: the stream turns into drops, flying in all directions. And if you use a capillary tube structure, the water slowly seeps through the pores, straight to the roots of the plants," says Maksim Sheverdyayev, head of the department for special non-nuclear materials at Rosatom.

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Cosmonaut Sergei Volkov and the "Lada" - IBMP / Roskosmos

When there's a lack of enough moisture in the soil replacement system, a discharge occurs, which is measured by pressure sensors. When the soil becomes too dry, the computer sends more water.

For now, the plan is to only grow lettuce - whose purpose is also to add variety to the cosmonauts' space diet. But the idea for a space greenhouse should become indispensable in the future, during a potential space colonization, when the need for an autonomous closed ecosystem with water and oxygen is predicted to become especially high.

Space farm?

In actuality, Russian cosmonauts already managed to grow a lot of plants in orbit. The first cultures were sent there way back in 1960, with the second 'Sputnik' ship, together with Belka and Strelka - the two famous dogs. How did the seeds react to microgravity? Was the harvest safe for consumption? Did it affect the plants' DNA? All of these questions (and more) have led to the types of experiments today that should give us the high-tech autonomous system we'll no doubt require in the future.

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'Trapezium' - Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics

The growing itself, for the time being, happens in quite a compact setup - as the one in the American segment of the ISS and - until recently - the Russian one. Talk of a mass-scale greenhouse is still just talk at this point.

"There are two ways growing can happen in zero gravity. The plants either attach to a surface, winding around it, or they tend toward some light source - it all depends on their type," cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev explains. "The plants are grown hydroponically. Horizontally attached receptacles with artificial substrate receive seeds and conditions are created for air to penetrate the greenhouse through the capsule."

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Oasis - Journal of Technology-Youth, 1983

The water and nutrients are fed automatically, although, until now, some astronauts perform the procedure manually, using a syringe and tubes, straight into the substrate. The path to doing it this way was a thorny one, however.

In 1974, aboard the 'Salut-4' orbital station, there was a hydroponics setup called 'Oasis'. Cosmonaut Georgy Grechko was trying to grow peas this way. There was no soil and the peas had to grow through a soaked net. Soon after work began, huge water droplets would begin leaking from the system, with Grechko having to chase them with napkins. He ended up cutting the hose and watering manually.

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Oasis-1 - Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics

However, this wasn't the only issue. In his book, 'Cosmonaut no.34', he confessed that his hatred of biology in school almost cost him the entire experiment. He thought the sprouts were getting trapped in the cloth and growing incorrectly and freed them from the net. Turned out he confused the roots with the stems.

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Tsiolkovsky's space greenhouse - Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics

Despite this, the experiment was concluded successfully. The peas began their cycle - from seed to stem. But of the 36 seeds, only three grew successfully. Why? Well, the scientists thought it was down to the genetic characteristics, which depended on the Earth's orientation - geotropics: the sprout always tends toward the light and the stem in the opposite direction.

Imitating the Earth

After that factor was taken into account, the setup was modified and new seeds were sent into orbit, with success all around. But the plants wouldn't bloom - just as it happened in 1980, with orchids that had been blooming before departure to space. In several days, the flowers would fall, despite new leaves continuing to grow, as it happened with the roots. A theory then merged that the Earth's magnetic field was at play.

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Oleg Artemiev / Roscosmos

The father of cosmonautics, Konstantin Tsyolkovsky, described a solution to the problem. He developed a plan to create an artificial gravitational field, involving growing the plants in a centrifuge. The practical solution already existed in 1933. The centrifuge did help: the sprouts turned according to the vector of the centrifugal force. The experiment successfully grew Arabidopsis and rockcress.

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Oleg Artemiev / Roscosmos

Following the success, cosmonauts continued to take seeds into space, successfully growing onions, wheat, lettuce, cabbage and other cultures - as well as doing so in open space. In 2007-2008, there was the 'Biorisk' experiment, which involved mustard seeds, rice, tomatoes, radish, yeast, rockcress and nicandra growing for 13 months in a container aboard the ISS. The tomatoes were the only ones to perish - others made it back to Earth, preserving their freshness.

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Roscosmos

Eating space-grown cultures has been allowed by law since the 1980s, when scientists first determined their safety, upon studying the effects of such a process of cultivation.

Enea Works on The Future of Vegetable Production

A team of Italian scientists designed GREENCUBE, the first micro-plot to grow vegetables during future space missions. It will be launched into orbit 6,000 km from Earth during the maiden voyage of the VEGA-C rocket by the European Space Agency (ESA). ENEA, Università Federico II in Naples, and Università La Sapienza in Rome take part as coordinators and partners of an agreement with the Italian Space Agency (ASI). 

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Above: Microgreens Greencube drawing

The prototype (see photo below) measures 30x10x10 cm and envisages closed-cycle hydroponic crops that can guarantee a complete growth cycle of micro-vegetables selected among the most suitable to endure extreme extraterrestrial conditions. 

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The project is part of ENEA's mission aimed at applying scientific research results to the industry and public administration with sustainable economic development in mind. In this case, we have infrastructures and skills developed for the cultivation of fresh vegetables in closed secluded environments surrounded by extreme conditions such as those found in space.  

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Luca Nardi

How long will it take for the experiments in space to find practical applications in terrestrial agriculture?
"This experiment will help create a completely automated cultivation system integrated with sensors and non-destructive diagnostic techniques. This was made possible thanks to the cooperation of aerospace engineers, agronomists, and biologists," explained Luca Nardi, a researcher at the ENEA lab.

"A lot of the research conducted in space has been applied to everyday life. In this case, we are trying to grow high-quality produce in a small environment and in extremely hostile conditions by carefully measuring resources while remotely analyzing the health conditions of plants." 

"Thanks to the efforts of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and AVIO, it will be possible for many young university students and researchers to conduct experiments in space using small satellites and significantly reducing waiting times and launch costs."

The Greencube project was financed by ASI. The satellite was entirely built by a group of young aerospace engineers: Paolo Marzioli, Federico Curianò, Lorenzo Frezza, Diego Amadio, and Luca Gugliermetti coordinated by Professor Fabio Santoni from Università la Sapienza in Rome and in collaboration with Giulio Metelli, a biologist from ENEA'S biotechnology laboratory and Professor's Stefania de Pascale research team at Università Federico II in Naples. This platform will also be used to set up production systems in an urban environment.

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Above: Drawing Microgreens Greencube photosynthesis diagram

Will this study support the challenge against climate change, one of the main enemies of intensive produce cultivation?
"The studies conducted aim at growing produce in small volumes in the cities too (urban farming) using all the space available also thanks to developed systems and the employment of smart farming techniques. The absence of soil and the impossibility to use direct solar light make this challenge truly difficult." 

"Managing to cultivate in indoor farming facilities by carefully using resources such as water, fertilizers, and energy while reducing waste and recycling human and plant waste thanks to the degradation action of micro-organisms forms an integral part of the study at the basis of life-support bioregenerative systems: they are true artificial ecosystems where plants, micro-organisms, and men interact. These systems will be employed more and more in the future to produce food locally and in closed environments while respecting the environment and making production unaffected by the climate and adverse weather events."

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Above: breathing diagram

What species have been chosen to conduct the experiments and why?
"We have chosen micro-vegetables such as brassicas to assess their response to the extreme stress conditions generated by radiations, micro-gravity, and reduced pressure. The comparison between the results obtained in space and on Earth will be crucial to assess the possibility of using micro-vegetables as a fresh high-nutrient food in future space missions."   

Are you considering the patenting of new varieties?
"Not in this case, as we will be using commercial varieties. We did do it as part of the Bioxtreme project financed by ASI, during which we engineered Microtom tomatoes to produce anthocyanins in plants to protect the plant itself and provide these powerful natural antioxidants to the astronauts." 

Publication date: Wed 29 Apr 2020
© HortiDaily.com

Want To Grow Plants in Space? Go To The Coldest Place On Earth

A land of unrelenting wind and ice, Antarctica is about as far from verdant as any place can get. Yet cucumbers are growing on the continent’s coast. Next to them, bunches of leafy Swiss chard, fresh herbs, and peppery arugula thrive.

These greenhouse vegetables are the stars of one of several scientific projects underway at Neumayer Station III, the third iteration of a German research facility run by the polar science-focused Alfred Wegener Institute.

The greenhouse’s primary purpose is pretty lofty: It’s a laboratory for studying how to grow food in outer space. Specifically, the researchers working there want to know whether astronauts can make fresh produce part of their diets if humans finally make it to Mars.

Read more at National Geographic (Catherine Zuckerman)

Publication date : 3/19/2019

Ten-Year Anniversary of The Neumayer Station III

The scientific and political community alike stress the importance of German Antarctic research

The Antarctic is a frigid continent south of the Antarctic Circle, where researchers are the only inhabitants. Despite the hostile conditions, here the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) operates a research station where researchers live and work year round. Since 2009 the Neumayer Station III, located on the Ekström Ice Shelf on the eastern coast of the Weddell Sea, has served as the primary base of operations for German Antarctic research activities. The station crew, together with a delegation from the research and political communities, are now celebrating its ten-year anniversary. 

Extreme cold, raging storms, and the seemingly never-ending Polar Night: the Antarctic is one of the most fascinating habitats on our planet. At the same time, it has a major influence on our climate. For the past ten years, the Neumayer Station III has provided vital support for German and international research projects in the Antarctic. Just a few kilometres from its two predecessors, the station was erected in the course of two consecutive Antarctic summers, and completed in early 2009. In a region that is sparsely populated, even by Antarctic standards, the station’s observatories are continuing unique time series that date as far back as the 1980s. At the same time, new research questions to investigate crop up year after year. In this regard, the station offers an essential ‘base camp’ for expeditions to the Antarctic hinterland, where e.g. the AWI’s snowcats and polar research aircraft come into play.

“The Antarctic continent is home to the Earth’s largest ice masses, and the Antarctic Ocean absorbs tremendous amounts of CO2 and heat, which is why conducting research in this region is of fundamental importance. In order to better grasp global changes, at the Neumayer Station III we gather data over extended time frames – from minute-to-minute weather observations to exploring the planet’s climatic history on the basis of ice cores. In addition, we provide support for observations of Antarctica’s diversity, from penguin colonies to the cold-water corals below the massive ice shelves,” explains AWI Director Antje Boetius. 

For example, at the station’s meteorology observatory, radiosondes attached to weather balloons are launched on a regular basis to measure the temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, wind and the distribution of ozone in the atmosphere. Further focus areas include research on atmospheric chemistry, the Earth’s magnetic field, sea ice, and a colony of emperor penguins. Since 2017, under the auspices of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the EDEN-ISS greenhouse has been tested at the Neumayer Station III. The goal: to pave the way for cultivating crops in space and in regions with challenging climatic conditions. As a result, this year’s overwintering team was the first that could look forward to fresh lettuce on a regular basis. In addition, here Germany’s Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) operates one of 60 infrasound stations deployed around the globe, which serve to monitor adherence to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). The German Meteorological Service (DWD) is also represented at the station, and provides essential forecasts that help ensure researchers know when it is safe to work outside. In the region of the Antarctic known as Dronning Maud Land, the DWD also supports international partners from e.g. Russia, Norway and South Africa by providing aviation weather forecasts. 

Currently, a fourteen-person delegation led by the Parliamentary State Secretary at Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Dr Michael Meister, is taking an inspection tour of the Neumayer Station III.

“These past few days have given us the chance to see for ourselves just how necessary and relevant polar research is for everyone. We need in-depth information on polar processes in order to understand the global climate and its on-going changes, and in order to devise policy recommendations on that basis. This scientific information is an essential prerequisite for making sustainable political decisions. I’d like to thank all of the experts among the research, technical and logistics staff for the valuable work they do under these harsh conditions,” stresses Parliamentary State Secretary Meister.

“With its interdisciplinary centres and its impressive research infrastructures, Helmholtz is making an important contribution to addressing the great challenges of our time,” says Otmar D. Wiestler, President of the Helmholtz Association. “The long-term research being conducted at the Neumayer Station III in the Antarctic is a prime example. Various scientific disciplines profit from the station’s unparalleled resources, including meteorological and climate research, space research, biology, geology and many more. Ultimately, all of these fields help to preserve or enhance our natural resources. I’m grateful to have now had the opportunity to experience the work being done at this extraordinary research station first-hand.” 

The Neumayer Station III: Background

For more than three-and-a-half decades, the AWI has maintained a research station staffed year-round in the Antarctic. Named in honour of the German polar researcher Georg von Neumayer, the Georg-von-Neumayer Station commenced operations in 1981. In 1992 it was replaced by the Neumayer Station, which, like its predecessor, was essentially a tubular structure. The current Neumayer Station III represents the largest and most comfortable station in the history of German Antarctic research. During the summer months, it offers accommodation for 50; as a rule, the overwintering team only consists of nine people. Unlike the majority of research stations in the Antarctic, virtually all workspaces, common rooms and supply rooms are centrally located under the same roof. In addition, both the station’s design and operation reflect the highest environmental protection standards. The energy it produces is recirculated in a closed system to the maximum extent possible, ensuring its optimal utilisation. Moreover, at the end of its service life, the entire station can be dismantled down to the last screw, so that the tracks left behind in this invaluable region are kept to a minimum.

That being said, its geographic position alone subjects the station to harsh conditions: every day, the ice shelf creeps roughly 40 centimetres toward the coast, which means there is a natural “expiry date” for the station. In addition, the very ground the station was built upon will one day calve as an iceberg – though, if the ice continues to flow at its current speed, that won’t happen for at least another 100 years. Buildings in the Antarctic also have to withstand virtually never-ending snowfall. In this regard, the Neumayer Station III is optimally adapted to its environment. Unlike its two predecessors, there’s no risk of it eventually being crushed by accumulating snow, since the entire station stands on 16 hydraulic struts, which technicians adjust at regular intervals to keep the building out of the snow. This allows it to rise in keeping with the snow cover, ensuring the platform remains at a constant height of ca. six metres above the surface. Thanks to this system, the station is bound to enjoy a far longer service life than the two stations before it – tentatively, at least until 2035.

Notes for Editors:
Your contact person is Dr Folke Mehrtens, Dept. of Communications, Alfred Wegener Institute, phone +49 (0)471 4831-2007 (e-mail: media(at)awi.de).

Printable images and a video are available in the online version of this Press Release: https://www.awi.de/en/about-us/service/press.html


The Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) conducts research in the Arctic, Antarctic and oceans of the high and mid-latitudes. It coordinates polar research in Germany and provides major infrastructure to the international scientific community, such as the research icebreaker Polarstern and stations in the Arctic and Antarctica. The Alfred Wegener Institute is one of the 19 research centres of the Helmholtz Association, the largest scientific organisation in Germany.

China Might Just Have Grown The First Plant Ever On The Moon

By Ben Westcott and Yong Xiong, CNN

January 15, 2019

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Photo of a cotton seed sprouting on the moon on January 12, nine days after the experiment began.

Hong Kong (CNN) Cotton seeds carried to the moon by a Chinese probe have sprouted, marking what could be the first plant to ever grow there, according to Chinese government images.

In making the announcement Tuesday, Chinese researchers released pictures from the probe showing the tiny plant growing in a small pot inside the spacecraft, hundreds of thousands of kilometers away from the Earth.

China became the first country to land a probe on the far side of the moon on January 3 when a rover named Yutu 2, or Jade Rabbit 2, touched down in the moon's largest and oldest impact crater, the South Pole-Aitken Basin.

The mission, titled Chang'e 4, is intended to accomplish a range of tasks, including conducting the first lunar low-frequency radio astronomy experiment and exploring whether there is water at the moon's poles.

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The video feed on the first day of the test on January 3.

Another purpose of the mission was to test whether plants could grow in a low-gravity environment, a test which appears to have already yielded results.

The system started to water the seedlings after the probe landed and less than a week later a green shoot had already appeared.

While human beings have grown plants in space before, they've never attempted to grow one on the moon.

Xie Gengxin, dean of Institute of Advanced Technology at Chongqing University, and the chief designer of the experiment, praised the achievement on the university's blog.

China's far side of the moon mission is just the start of its space ambitions

"This (mission) has achieved the first biological experiment on the moon of human history, to sprout the first bud on the desolate moon. And with time moving on, it'll be the first plant with green leaves on the moon," Xie said.

Chinese scientists are also attempting to grow seeds from rapeseed, potato and mouse-ear cress, and are trying to hatch fruit fly eggs.

According to the university's blog, the experiment will show how life develops in low gravity and strong radiation environments. It could even help provide a blueprint for growing resources during a future moon colony established by humans.

China's ambitions for space and lunar exploration aren't limited to the current mission. On Monday, China's space agency announced the Chang'e 5 lunar mission would launch by the end of the year with a goal to bring moon samples back to Earth.

The country's first mission to Mars is scheduled for around 2020, Wu Yanhua, deputy head of China National Space Administration, said at a news conference in Beijing Monday.

Life Support System Greenhouses To Be Launched To Space

At 19:31 CET on 19 November 2018, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Eu:CROPIS mission was launched into space from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

A Falcon 9 from the US aerospace company SpaceX will carry two biological life support systems comprising greenhouses, dwarf tomato seeds, single-celled algae and synthetic urine on a satellite up to a near-Earth orbit at an altitude of 600 kilometres. The aim is for the seeds to germinate in space and continue to grow due to the successful conversion of urine into a fertiliser solution. The mission is intended to show how biological life support systems can be used to supply food on long-term missions. The Eu:CROPIS satellite, which is approximately one cubic metre in size and weighs 230 kilograms with its biological payload, was designed and built by DLR and the Friedrich Alexander University (FAU) in Erlangen–Nuremberg.

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"With the Eu:CROPIS mission, DLR is making a significant contribution towards future long-term missions, showing whether and how a closed biological life support system can function and produce food far away from Earth. In the process, DLR has once again demonstrated its systems expertise in the design and construction of satellites," says Hansjörg Dittus, DLR Executive Board Member for Space Research and Technology. The satellite will separate from the Falcon 9 carrier rocket 35 minutes after the launch in its orbit. The DLR German Space Operations Center (GSOC) in Oberpfaffenhohen, which will control the satellite, expects first radio contact about one and a half hours after the launch.

A closed life support system
Eu:CROPIS stands for 'Euglena and Combined Regenerative Organic-food Production in Space'. "This mission seeks to show that urine can be converted into nutrients even under lunar and Martian gravity conditions," says Jens Hauslage of the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine in Cologne. Inside the satellite are two greenhouses, each maintained as a pressurised closed loop system. The core elements of these systems are a biofilter and green algae (Euglena gracilis). The biofilter consists of a 400-millilitre chamber filled with lava stones. Bacteria have settled on and within these porous stones, which convert the urine flowing over them into nitrate in a water cycle.

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"The nutrient solution obtained is used to cultivate the tomatoes. This is, so to speak, an indicator that our experiment is proceeding successfully in space," says Hauslage. The single-celled Euglena gracilis, also known as green algae, which will be carried into space as a 500-millilitre 'green solution', also play a key role in the system. Firstly, they can produce oxygen, which will prove particularly important at the start of the experiment, when the tomatoes are not yet generating oxygen via photosynthesis. Secondly, the Euglena can detoxify the system and protect it against excessive levels of ammonia, which can occur if the biofilter is not functioning properly. "We use the properties of communities of organisms to apply purely organic methods for transforming waste into substances that we need to grow crop plants, in this case tomatoes. As such, we are preparing the vital groundwork for supplying astronauts with food on future long-term missions," explains Hauslage. He and Michael Lebert (FAU in Erlangen) are the scientific instigators behind the project, and are now leading the Eu:CROPIS mission.

The processes at play inside the greenhouses are recorded by cameras and transmitted to the GSOC and the Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC). LED light provides a day-and-night rhythm, while a pressure tank ensures atmospheric pressure of one bar, which corresponds with that of Earth's. Also on board the Eu:CROPIS satellite are two RAMIS (Radiation Measurement in Space) devices, developed by the Institute of Aerospace Medicine. These will measure radiation levels both inside and outside the satellite during the mission. DLR is also sending the on-board computer SCORE (SCalable On-BoaRd Computing Experiment), developed by the Institute of Space Systems, to test the principle of a COBC (Compact On-Board Computer) in space for the first time. The computer will process the images taken by the on-board cameras. NASA will also be running a PowerCell experiment relating to the production of useful substances in space using bacteria.

Gravitational conditions as on the Moon or Mars
During the mission, the satellite will rotate around its longitudinal axis. Depending on the rotation rate, this generates a specific level of altered gravity. During the first part of the experimental phase, gravitational conditions like those on the Moon will be created (0.16 times Earth's gravitational pull), with 20 rotations per minute. This will last for around 23 weeks. The first greenhouse will be put into operation during this phase. In the second research phase, the satellite will simulate gravity on Mars (0.38 times that of Earth) by rotating 32 times per minute. Experiments will now take place in the second life support system.

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Systems expertise in satellite construction
The satellite was built at the DLR Institute of Space Systems in Bremen. The DLR Institute of Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems in Braunschweig developed the frame structure and the pressure tank. Power is supplied via four solar panels, each with a surface area of one square metre. DLR scientists were able to draw on their experience of developing standard components for satellites in the run-up to the mission. Depending on the payload, they are able to design and construct satellites of different sizes quickly and flexibly. "In its efforts towards this mission, DLR has shown that it can develop satellites efficiently and cost-effectively. This component-oriented design is a unique feature of DLR, enabling us to support lots of different research missions," says Hartmut Müller, Project Manager for the satellite’s construction at the DLR Institute of Space Systems.

Benefits for Earth
Fresh vegetables that thrive in space thanks to converted organic waste products are not only a prerequisite for long-term space travel, but the research findings from such projects can also be useful on Earth. If urine or manure can be recycled into fresh water and nutrients usable by plants, this could improve living conditions in overcrowded areas or in places that have an extreme shortage of drinking water, while providing relief for soil and groundwater – another of DLR’s areas of research.

Source: DLR

Publication date : 11/16/2018 

NASA Is Learning The Best Way To Grow Food In Space

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Can gardens help astronauts go farther?

By Sarah Scoles June 6, 2018

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“Our plants aren’t looking too good,” astronaut Scott Kelly tweeted from the International Space Station on December 27, 2015. He was right: The attached picture showed four baby zinnias bathed in magenta light. Three of the four leafy stalks were discolored and curling in on themselves. The station’s garden was struggling to recover from a mold problem. It’s an issue familiar to terrestrial gardeners. And while on Earth, the problem means a trip to the local nursery for replacements, in space you can’t do that.

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Space gardens will be essential someday if astronauts are to go beyond low-earth orbit or make more than a quick trip to the moon. They can't carry all the food they need.

The Voorhes

The zinnias, brightly colored flowers in the daisy family, were part of an experiment called Veggie, whose ultimate mission is to provide crews with a long-term source of food. In prior tests, astronauts had successfully harvested lettuce. The zinnias had a longer growth ­period—60 to 80 days—and then would bloom, producing neon-hued blossoms that look like they belong in a psychedelic corsage. They were practice for something finickier and tastier than leafy greens: tomatoes. If station crews were ever going to grow something that intricate, they needed to figure out—among other things— how to vanquish mold.

Veggie is a relatively uncomplicated way for astronauts to develop their green thumbs. “It’s a very simple system,” says Gioia Massa, one of the project’s lead scientists. “It doesn’t control much at all.” Instead, the humans do.

Space gardening will be essential someday if space travelers are to go beyond low-Earth orbit or make more than a quick trip to the moon. They can’t carry on all the food they need, and the rations they do bring will lose nutrients. So astronauts will need a replenishable stash, with extra vitamins. They’ll also require ways to make more oxygen, recycle waste, and help them not miss home so much. Space gardens can, theoretically, help accomplish all of that.

Veggie and other systems aboard the space station are helping researchers figure out how radiation and lack of gravity affect plants, how much water is Goldilocks-good, and how to deal with deplorables like mold. Just as important, scientists are learning how much work astronauts have to put in, how much work they want to put in, and how plants nourish their brains as well as their bodies.

For all its potential importance, Veggie is pretty compact. It weighs 41 pounds, just a hair less than the station’s 44-pound coffeemaker. The top—an off-white rectangular box that houses the grow lights—resembles an old VCR. From this, a ­curtain of clear plastic hangs to encase the ­1.7-square-foot planting surface. Astronauts preset how long the lights stay on each day; how brightly they emit red light to optimize photosynthesis, and blue light to control the plants’ form and function. They can also ­activate a built-in fan to adjust the humidity.

The most important part of Veggie, though, is the fragile bounty it is meant to cultivate. That begins as seeds encased in little ­Teflon- coated Kevlar pouches. The scientists call them plant pillows. “You can think of it like a grow bag,” Massa says of these packets stuffed with seeds, water wicks, fertilizer, and soil.

People have anticipated this scenario for more than a century. In 1880, science-fiction author Percy Greg wrote Across the Zodiac, a novel about an astronaut who traveled to Mars with plants to recycle waste. Fifteen years later, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a Russian rocket scientist, wrote Dreams of Earth and Sky, which laid out how spacefarers and flora could live together inside a closed system.

In the 1950s, green things burst from book covers and into the lab. NASA and the U.S. Air Force started growing algae to see if it could help with life support (turns out, it tasted bad, was full of indigestible cell walls, and had too much protein). Then, Soviet scientists experimented with nearly self-sufficient ecosystems in which humans survived on oxygen, water, and nutrition produced mostly within an enclosed habitat.

In the longest run, a 180-day trial inside a facility called BIOS-3, an earthbound crew got 80 percent of its food from its own wheat and vegetables. Finally, in 1982, plants in space became a reality when Soviet cosmonauts grew Arabidopsis thaliana, a flowering species related to cabbage and mustard, to maturity aboard their Salyut 7 space station. The yield was too small to be a source of food.

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Liquid refreshment

Astronauts dispense precise amounts of water to the plants inside Veggie.

NASA

Around this time, in the mid-’80s, ­Veggie’s Massa was in middle school, and her ­seventh- grade teacher returned from an astro­agriculture workshop at Kennedy Space ­Center with reams of information on the topic. Inspired, a teenage Massa kept taking ag classes as she moved on to high school, and later teamed up with her middle-school ­mentor for a hydroponics project.

While Massa continued her studies and self-guided experimentation, NASA began building orbital plant-growing apparatus, most notably the Biomass Production System. Designed to be used for experiments on the space station, it was a rectangle with sides each about the length of an arm. Four cube-shaped growth chambers rested like safes inside. Designed by scientists at a Wisconsin-based company, ­Orbitec, the Biomass Production System joined the space station in 2001. There, Brassica rapa field mustard soon sprouted tall, illuminated by plain white fluorescent light.

When researchers compared the harvest to a control plant on the ground, though, they found that the space mustard had more bacteria and fungus. “The significance of the difference is uncertain,” states NASA’s official conclusion. By which the agency meant it didn’t know why the microbes proliferated, not that their presence wasn’t important. In fact, as Veggie’s mold would show, it was critically important.

NASA retired the Biomass Production System in 2002, but Russian cosmonauts picked up where the U.S. left off. Over the decade, they successfully grew dwarf wheat, leafy mizuna, and dwarf peas. Bonus: In four successive generations of orbiting dwarf peas, the vegetables didn’t show signs of genetic messiness.

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Meanwhile Orbitec, in consultation with NASA, cultivated another plant-growing ­instrument. So when NASA awarded a grant in 2012 for a new space garden, the company had something to show for itself: Veggie, which, unlike its predecessor, was meant to produce food on an edible scale. Massa, by then a postdoc, tested different types of ­media and crops for the plant pillows. It was the kind of tinkering she’d been preparing for since she was 12. The United States’ first real space garden launched in 2014, not long after Massa advanced from her postdoc to become a Veggie project scientist at the space agency.

All went pretty well for Veggie until the flower flap. Most of its initial ­edible plants—a lettuce variety called Outredgeous—sprouted as they should have in 2014, and the astronauts shot them back down to Earth for testing. Massa says they’re still working on all the analyses. “But in general, the plants are pretty similar to our ground samples.” When they’re finished, they’ll know about chemical contents like antioxidants, anthocyanin (pigments), and phenolics, which protect plants against stress. Short term, the priority was mealtime: Could we have consumed the harvest? The crew, Massa, and NASA all wanted to know. Yes, it turned out, the produce was microbially safe to eat.

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Kevlar-coated pouches help protect seeds from microbial contamination; fully grown ­Outredgeous lettuce

NASA

Still, when the astronauts planted a second set of seeds, in summer 2015, Massa ran into a new challenge: With harvest approaching, NASA had no protocol to approve the crew chowing down on the leaves of their labor. “We said, ‘We have only 28 days, and then they’re going to have to eat it,’” Massa recalls. With the clock ticking, management found a way to ­officially add the lettuce to the astronauts’ diet.

On August 9, Kelly snapped a picture, standing in front of the unfurling greens. His brow was furrowed, faux-serious. “­Tomorrow we’ll eat the anticipated veggie harvest on @space_station!” he tweeted. “But first, lettuce take a #selfie.” Soon he crunched the harvest live on NASA TV. It might seem like no big deal, but a single leaf can make a big difference to someone who’s been eating rehydrated fare for months. During a later harvest, astronaut Peggy Whitson would use them to wrap a reconstituted lobster salad. “Even with a really good diet with hundreds of items, there’s dietary fatigue,” Massa says. “People get bored. Adding a new flavor or texture—like something crisp and juicy—could spice up your regular meal.”

That’s not the only brain boost. Sure, astronauts can gaze down at Earth and see its most beautiful spots—literally all of them—every 90 minutes. But those places are always out of reach, reminders of how far away sea level is. Having something nearby that photosynthesizes might cheer the crew. “It’s the psychological aspect of something green and growing when you’re far away from home,” Massa says.

In the next growing cycle, the astronauts fostered the ill-fated zinnias. About two weeks in, Kjell Lindgren saw the first warning signs. Water leaked from the wicks that hold the seeds. Then moisture began seeping from the infant leaves, which started to curl in on themselves. Veggie staff on the ground, in charge of the operation, decided it was time to turn the airflow fan from low to high. But an impromptu spacewalk to fix a broken robotic arm delayed the change because, in space, nothing is as simple as flicking a switch on your way out of the spaceship. While reprogramming Veggie’s settings takes only about 15 minutes, NASA prefers astronauts move anything lower priority out of the way when they have a high-priority task.

And then the leaves started to die.

That’s bad enough on its own. But, worse, dying vegetation can be a breeding ground for mold, which had somehow come to space with the astronauts and cargo. Soon, menacing white fuzz began choking the plants.

By this time, Lindgren had returned to Earth, and Kelly had taken over the garden. On December 22, with instructions from ground control, Kelly snipped away the moldy parts like bad spots from a piece of cheese, and swabbed the remaining zinnias and equipment with cleaning wipes. He left the fans on high to help dehydrate the setup.

It was a good try but not without a cost: It made the plants thirsty. Kelly relayed that to ground control and asked to water them. Sergeants who were set on sticking to the drill told Kelly it wasn’t time yet. Not till December 27. “You know, I think if we’re going to Mars, and we were growing stuff, we would be responsible for deciding when the stuff needed water,” Kelly told them, according to NASA’s write-up of the event.

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Farm to table

On-Orbit Gardeners Kjell Lindgren (left) and Scott Kelly. The fast-growing salad green was the first plant to be grown, harvested, and eaten in space.

NASA

Eventually, they gave autonomy to the person who was actually next to the plants, along with one page of instructions called “The ­Zinnia Care Guide for the On-Orbit Gardener.”

Under the On-Orbit Gardener’s thumb, half of the zinnias revived, unfurling and growing green. NASA spun the whole thing as a positive: They now knew that crops could survive floods, drought, and disease, and that excising the problem plants and cleaning the remainder could keep the fungus from taking over.

Kelly loved the now-flourishing flowers and carried their container all over the space station for photo shoots, like those people who snap shots of themselves in Hard Rock T-shirts all over the world. “He asked if he could harvest them on Valentine’s Day,” Massa says. He’d been in space, away from everyone ­except his smelly crew mates for more than 300 days. NASA let him make the bouquet.

It was one of Massa’s favorite moments. “We had been a part of something that gave him pleasure,” she says.

In upcoming Veggie experiments, scientists will learn more about that part of gardening—the mental part. “We’ve heard a lot anecdotally,” Massa says, “but we’ve never been able to collect data.” They’ll also investigate how much farming crewmembers actually want to do, how much is fun versus how much is a chore, how their sense of taste changes in orbit, and which plants can survive human error (no offense, astronauts).

Veggie’s experiments will continue in tandem with those of a brand-new Type-A companion, the Advanced Plant Habitat, an 18-inch-square self-sufficient laboratory with more than 180 sensors and automated watering. Scientists can establish their variables and thus nail down the specific conditions that cultivate plants—and how those plants can ­cultivate humans. A temperature-­control system keeps the air within 0.5°C of the thermo­stat setting. Sensors relay data about air temperature, light, moisture, and oxy­gen levels back to base. While the Advanced Plant Habitat will quantify the circumstances for successful gardening, Veggie will help qualify how—and why—humans can facilitate their own food supply. In other words, through the habitat’s tight controls, researchers can learn how to grow which plants best. Then, using those parameters, they can set up a system like Veggie that astronauts get to interact with.

Astronauts assembled the habitat over six hours in October 2017, after it rumbled into space in two shipments. The automated contraption looks like a microwave that could survive… being shot into space. Wires stream from here to there and there to here on a control panel. Red indicator lights blink next to toggle switches. And inside the plant chamber, LEDs beam from the ceiling, illuminating the plants below with concert-stage color combinations. It has red, green, and blue lights like Veggie—plus white, near-, and far-infrared ones.

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Plants might also be a brain boost. "It's the psychological aspect of having something green and growing when you're far away fom home," says Massa.

The Voorhes

Robert Richter, director of environmental systems at Sierra Nevada Corporation, which acquired Orbi­tec in 2014, monitored its progress from the earthbound Space Station Processing Facility. He’d helped design and build the new lab, as well as Veggie and Biomass. When he started in the field, almost 20 years ago, he was a bit ­naive. “I thought, How hard is it to grow plants?”

He’s partly joking, of course—and he knows, now, that when you’re trying to keep the humidity level within 3 percent of a given ­number, when you must make and measure light and moisture, and when you maintain the temperature to a fraction of a degree, there’s a long row to hoe between growing some basil in a cup and farming lettuce in space.

The team powered up the unit in November 2017. And by February this year, test crops of Arabidopsis thaliana and dwarf wheat sprouted. Soon, they’ll begin experiments like investigating plants’ DNA and physiological changes. A lot of the previous plant research has been focused on whether things would grow at all, says Robert Morrow, Sierra Nevada Corporation’s principal scientist. Will they reproduce from generation to generation? And are they as productive in space as on the ground?

Yes, he says. Scientists are beyond those basics now. They need to dig into the dirtier details and more-complicated ecosystems. ­Astronauts, for instance, exhale carbon ­dioxide that plants can inhale. The plants then exhale oxygen, which humans can inhale. ­Human waste can become plant fertilizer and hydration. Nothing wasted, everything gained.

Ultimately, Morrow believes, a garden on a deep-space mission will be more like Veggie than like the Advanced Space Habitat. “It’s really not practical to put all the stuff you have in APH in a system like that,” he says. With so many sensors and tubes, lots can go mechanically wrong, and it’s easier to repair a Veggie than an APH. For now, scientists need APH to home in on optimal guidelines for plant growth and understand how leaving the planet changes them so they can instruct future astronauts how to better manage Veggie-esque systems.

Looking toward the future, Massa is interested in observing astronaut interactions with the instruments. “Do you always want to pick your ripe tomatoes, but maybe you don’t want to have to water them every other day?” she wonders. She’ll have a chance to find out ­because Veggie will grow its first dwarf tomatoes, a variety called Red Robin, early next year.

Other nations continue to experiment too. China, for instance, intends to send silkworms and potato seeds to the moon this year aboard its Chang’e-4 spacecraft. When the silkworms hatch, they’ll create carbon dioxide, which the potato plants will suck up and turn into oxygen, which the silkworms will then take up.

All this research doesn’t just help ­people above the atmosphere. Creating ­self-­contained growth systems might help farmers on Earth grow crops year-round or foster plants with extra protein and high yield. Someday, the work will lead to gardening systems ­substantial—and stable—enough to support space journeyers. Then, those travelers can wrap anything they want in lettuce and crunch their way through the cosmos.

Contributing editor Sarah Scoles is the author of Making Contact: Jill Tartar and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

This article was originally published in the Summer 2018 Life/Death issue of Popular Science.

Tags: Science gardening farming space travel Features summer 2018 Technology Space

Flying Greenhouse From Bremen Goes Into Space

Flying Greenhouse From Bremen Goes Into Space

Soon, a flying greenhouse could revolve around the Earth. This summer, a research satellite from Bremen should be launched into space with tomato seeds on board. In it, the plants should grow under different gravitational conditions; for half a year gravity like on the moon, then for half a year with the gravity of Mars. 

Engineers work on a research satellite at the German Aerospace Center. 
Photo: Carmen Jaspersen

"We will ultimately simulate and test greenhouses that could be put on the Moon or Mars (inside a habitat) providing fresh food for a crew by using a closed system to convert waste into manure in a controlled manner," says DLR biologist Dr. Jens Hauslage, who leads the science mission. For example, in a lunar habitat, the greenhouse would be inside - where even the astronauts are in an Earth-like atmosphere. One of the waste products that would be produced with great regularity would be the urine of the astronauts. The plants would have to adapt to the reduced gravity: the moon only has about a sixth of Earth’s gravity, Mars about one third. 

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Tomato farming under controlled conditions - Photo: DLR

Researchers from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Bremen and Cologne will be watching what goes on in the small ecosystem inside the satellite. The findings are important for future space missions to the moon and Mars, said project manager Hartmut Müller. The tests with the tomato plants in space would take one and a half years in all. 
 

More information about project Eu:CROPIS can be found here. 

Source: dpa/dlr

Publication date: 6/21/2018

University of Florida/IFAS Researcher To Experiment With Algae In Space

University of Florida/IFAS Researcher To Experiment With Algae In Space

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A University of Florida scientist will use the International Space Station to see if algae can help recycle carbon dioxide and eventually be used to help make plastics, resins and even food.

Initially, researchers want to improve algae’s ability to use light to capture carbon, and in turn, help support animal and plant life in space, said Mark Settles, a UF professor of horticultural sciences.

Settles will put plants on a payload bound from the Kennedy Space Center for the ISS. The launch is scheduled for June 29.

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“I’ve recently become interested in applying synthetic biology to plants, particularly to understand how starch and grain-storage proteins accumulate in the cells,” said Settles, a faculty member at the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. “Corn is very hard to manipulate and takes a long time to develop improved varieties.”

“I figured I could start by working with algae and that NASA would be interested in engineering algae that could be used as food,” he said. “We are adapting algae to grow as fast they do in conventional liquid cultures on Earth.”

Among its advantages, cultivated algae could provide a system to recycle carbon dioxide and perhaps eventually provide food or a source of vitamins for crew members on long space voyages, said Settles. Previous studies show rodents and chickens eat algae, so it’s edible for humans, too, although astronauts don’t eat it yet, he said.

In conducting his month-long experiment, Settles will select algal strains that improve growth in a microgravity environment.

Algal oils also can produce fuel or be used to make plastics and resins in space, Settles said. Algae also make carotenoids and vitamins, which are important for human nutrition, Settles said. This is critical because space flight diminishes astronauts’ vision and exposes them to cosmic radiation.

“Algal carotenoids may help mitigate some of these harmful effects,” Settles said.

Settles’ next step is to extract DNA and sequence the genome of the space-selected algal strains. He and his research team also will propagate the space strains in the lab to maintain them for future space missions.

“Corn and other cereals produce a lot of plant material that is not particularly useful in space,” Settles said. “The long-term goal is to engineer algae to produce the valuable stuff without so much waste plant material.”

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By: Brad Buck, 352-294-3303, bradbuck@ufl.edu

The mission of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is to develop knowledge relevant to agricultural, human and natural resources and to make that knowledge available to sustain and enhance the quality of human life. With more than a dozen research facilities, 67 county Extension offices, and award-winning students and faculty in the UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, UF/IFAS works to bring science-based solutions to the state’s agricultural and natural resources industries, and all Florida residents. Visit the UF/IFAS web site at ifas.ufl.edu and follow us on social media at @UF_IFAS.

by Brad Buck

Posted: June 13, 2018

Category: UF/IFAS

Tags: algae, astronauts, carbon dioxide, horticultural sciences department, International Space Station, Mark Settles, News, space

Farmers vs. Astronauts: Cosmosphere Hosts Unique Competition

Farmers vs. Astronauts: Cosmosphere Hosts Unique Competition

By: 

• Emily Younger 
  •  

Posted: Jun 05, 2018

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HUTCHINSON, Kan. (KSNW) - A competition hosted by the Cosmosphere is pitting Kansas farmers and the nation's astronauts against each other. 

"Earth v. the International Space Station Agriculture Contest" invites students fourth through twelfth grades to take on crews from the International Space Station (ISS) in a competition to grow the most food within a one-cubic-meter garden space. 

"So it's us versus the astronauts," said Cosmosphere Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Tracey Tomme. "We looked at different experiments that they are currently doing on station and many of those are revolving around growing food and having food on long-duration space flight, so growing food, we know how to do that and that's why we picked agriculture."

Three winners will be selected and each of them will receive a Cosmosphere camp package for the 2019 summer camp season.

Nick Westerhaus, 12, is one of the competitors.

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"I want to be an astronaut," said Nick.

Nick said he's always been interested in space, but a recent trip to Johnson Space Center left a lasting impression on him and his life goals.

"It didn't seem as unreachable as I thought it was when I was younger. It made it seem very achievable," he said.

The soon-to-be 7th grader from Overland Park has created a hydroponic farm for the competition.

"I am growing lettuce, leafed lettuce not the big head of lettuce. I have spinach and I have a lot, a lot of radishes. They grow really, really well in hydroponics and also I can eat like everything they have including the roots and leaves," Nick said.

The Cosmosphere said any type of growth medium, light source, and fertilizer is allowed. However, plants must be grown from a seed and a weekly photo journal of the sowing of the seeds and the plants' progress is required. 

"They don't have to go buy fancy equipment. There's no set standard for what to use and you know why because we don't have one, so they just need to think about the parameters and what they can do," Tomme explained. "They can use whatever lighting, whatever soil, no soil, hydroponic, aquaponic, in a field, on a patio, on a porch, doesn't matter to us. They take their pictures, they collect their data turn it in."

Winning totals will be calculated by the amount of edible food product, waste product, design, and reporting, according to Tomme.

Nick said he's hopeful he will win the summer camp to continue his dream of becoming an astronaut.

"It would mean a lot," he said. 

The contest runs from May 1 through September 30. Click Here For Full Details.

The Challenge of Space Gardening: One Giant 'Leaf' For Mankind

The Challenge of Space Gardening: One Giant 'Leaf' For Mankind

Kerry SHERIDAN

AFP News 10 May 2018

Tomatoes grow in a LED-lighted box, similar to what astronauts use to grow lettuce on the International Space Station, at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami on April 25, 2018

It's not easy having a green thumb in space.

Without gravity, seeds can float away. Water doesn't pour, but globs up and may drown the roots. And artificial lights and fans must be rigged just right to replicate the sun and wind.

But NASA has decided that gardening in space will be crucial for the next generation of explorers, who need to feed themselves on missions to the Moon or Mars that may last months or years.

Necessary nutrients, like vitamins C and K, break down over time in freeze-dried foods. Without them, astronauts are increasingly vulnerable to infections, poor blood clotting, cancer and heart disease.

So the US space agency has turned to professional botanists and novice gardeners -- high school students, in fact -- to help them practice.

"There are tens of thousands of edible plants on Earth that would presumably be useful, and it becomes a big problem to choose which of those plants are the best for producing food for astronauts," explained Carl Lewis, director of the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, which is leading the effort.

"And that is where we come in."

- Useful foibles -

The Miami-based garden has identified 106 plant varieties that might do well in space, including hardy cabbages and leafy lettuces.

They have enlisted 15,000 student botanists from 150 schools to grow plants in space-like conditions in their own classrooms.

The four-year project is about midway through and is paid for by a $1.24 million grant from NASA.

Using trays rigged with lights that mimic the grow boxes used in space, students must tend to the plants and record data on their progress, which eventually gets shared with NASA.

"We're not using typical gardening equipment," said Rhys Campo, a 17-year-old high school student who tried her hand at growing red romaine lettuce this year.

"We have setups that are a lot more high-tech."

Still, some plants get overwatered, some classrooms are hotter or colder than others, and holiday breaks may leave the grow boxes unattended.

In Campo's class, the lettuce dried up, and students were unable to taste it.

Such foibles have turned out to be an unexpected but useful part of the project, said NASA plant scientist Gioia Massa.

"If you have a plant that does well in all that variability, chances are that plant will do well in space," she told AFP.

- New textures -

Astronauts living at the space station, 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth have encountered their share of failures while gardening in orbit, too.

The first portable growing box for space, equipped with LED lights, called Veggie, was tested at the orbiting outpost in 2014.

Some of the lettuce didn't germinate, and some died of drought.

But astronauts kept trying, and finally took their first bite of NASA-approved space-grown lettuce in 2015.

Now, there are two Veggie grow boxes at the ISS, along with a third, called the Advanced Plant Habitat.

The food being grown is only occasionally harvested and amounts to just a leaf or two per astronaut, but it's worth it, said NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold, during a live video downlink with students at Fairchild last month.

"The textures of food are all kind of very similar," he said of the freeze-dried fare available on board the ISS.

"When we are able to harvest our own lettuce here, just having a different texture to enjoy is a really nice diversion from the standard menu."

- The ideal space veggie -

Plants don't need gravity in order to grow. They just orient themselves to the light.

According to Massa, a good space plant has to be compact and produce a lot of edible food.

Plants also have to do well in a spaceship like the ISS, which has a temperature of 71 degrees Fahrenheit (22 Celsius), 40 percent relative humidity, and high carbon dioxide -- some 3,000 parts per million.

"That is something plants aren't adjusted to," said Massa. "On Earth, it is about 400 ppm."

Under a system, Massa described as akin to hydroponics but not exactly the same, space plants also have to germinate from a plant pillow with only a small amount of dirt, do well under LED lights, and be microbially fairly clean, because it is hard to wash vegetables in space.

Some of the student-tested crops are expected to launch in coming months, including dragoon lettuce and extra dwarf pak choi.

By next year, tomatoes could be on the menu

- Connection to Earth -

NASA is looking into the possibility of robotic space gardening, to automate the process so the crew can focus on other tasks.

But many astronauts say they like tending to plants because it helps them maintain a connection to Earth.

"The psychological benefits can be important for astronauts," said NASA research scientist Trent Smith.

Besides -- as many gardeners know -- having a plot dry up or be devoured by mold isn't the end of the world.

"The thing that the students learn is that making mistakes is okay," said JoLynne Woodmansee, a teacher at BIOTech High School in Miami.

"The whole process of science is all about building. You can't learn something new without making a mistake."