Plants for Human Life Support in Space: A Review of Some NASA Research Sperlonga May 2006
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Plants for Human Life
Support in Space:
A Review of Some NASA Research
Raymond M. Wheeler
NASA Biological Sciences Office
Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA
2nd Conference on AgroSpace
Sperlonga
May 2006
Human Life Support Requirements:
Inputs Outputs
Daily (% total
Daily (% total
Rqmt. mass)
mass)
Oxygen 0.83 kg 2.7%
Carbon 1.00 kg 3.2%
Food 0.62 kg 2.0%
dioxide
Water 3.56 kg 11.4%
(drink and Metabolic 0.11 kg 0.35%
food prep.) solids
Water 26.0 kg 83.9% Water 29.95 kg 96.5%
(hygiene, flush (metabolic / urine 12.3%)
laundry, dishes) (hygiene / flush 24.7%)
(laundry / dish 55.7%)
(latent 3.6%)
TOTAL 31.0 kg TOTAL 31.0 kg
Source: NASA SPP 30262 Space Station ECLSS Architectural Control Document
Food assumed to be dry except for chemically-bound water.
Plants for Life Support
Metabolic
HUMANS Energy
food
(CH2O) + O2 CO2 + H2O
Clean Water Waste Water
Light
food
(CH2O) + O2*+ H2O CO2 + 2H 2O*
Clean Water Waste Water
PLANTS
Life Support Testing with Plants and Algae
(some history)
1960 1980 2000
US Air Force
USSR Air Force
Inst. for Biomedical Problems (Moscow)
Inst. of Biophysics (Krasnoyarsk, Siberia)
NASA NASA (CELSS) NASA (ALS)
Natl. Aerospace Lab (Japan) Inst. Env. Sci. (IES)
Cadarache, France MELISSA / ESA
Guelph / CSA
University Studies (US, Europe, Japan, Canada)
NASA Testing with Plants for Life Support
1980 1990 2000
CELSS Program ALS Program
Wheat (Utah State) Gas Exch. / Ethylene (Utah State)
Universities
MIR Wheat Studies
Sweetpotato / Peanut (Tuskegee)
Potato (Wisconsin)
Soybean (NC State) STS-73
Potato New Jersey
N-Nutrition (UC Davis) Leaves NSCORT
Lettuce (Purdue) Purdue ALS
NSCORT NSCORT
ISS Wheat
ARC Algae Closed Systems Salad Machine
Centers
NASA
KSC Large, Closed System NFT Lighting Waste Recycling Salad spp.
JSC Solid Media Pressure Human / Integration
NASA’s Biomass Production Chamber (BPC)
Control Room
External View - Back
20 m 2 growing area; 113 m3 vol.; 96 400-W HPS Lamps;
400 m3 min-1 air circulation; two 52-kW chillers Hydroponic System
Soybean Plants in NASA’s (BPC)
Canopy CO2 Uptake / O2 Production
(20 m2 Soybean Stand)
Wheeler. 1996. In: H. Suge (ed.) Plants in Space Biology.
NASA Cultivar Comparisons
and Crop Breeding
Several Universities:
Cultivar Comparisons
(wheat, potato, soybean,
lettuce, sweetpotato, tomato
?
Utah State:
Super Dwarf Wheat
Apogee Wheat
Perigee Wheat Dwarf Pepper ? and Tomato ?
Super Dwarf Rice
Tuskegee:
ASP Sweetpotato
?
Recirculating Hydroponics with Crops
Soybean
KSC
Sweetpotato
Tuskegee
Conserve Water & Nutrients
Eliminate Water Stress
Optimize Mineral Nutrition
Wheat / Utah State Facilitate Harvesting
Rice / PurdueNFT Hydroponics
Even for Root-
Zone Crops
? Potato
? Peanut
Wheeler et al., 1990. Amer. Potato J. 67:177-187; Mackowiak et al. 1998. HortScience 33:650-651Watering Systems for Weightlessness
Porous Ceramic Tubes to Contain the Water
Plant roots grow around surface of the moist tubes
Wright et al. 1988. Trans. ASAE 31:440-446; Dreschel and Sager. 1989. HortScience 24:944-947.High Yields from High Light and CO2 Enrichment
Wheat - 3-4 x World Record
Potato - 2 x World Record
Lettuce-Exceeded Commercial
Yield Models
Wisconsin Biotron
NASA Kennedy Utah State
Space Center Univ.
• Bubgee, B.G. and F.B. Salisbury. 1988. Plant Physiol. 88:869-878.
• Wheeler, R.M., T.W. Tibbitts, A.H. Fitzpatrick. 1991. Crop Science 31:1209-1213.The Importance of Lighting
--Electric Lamp Options
Lamp Type Conversion* Lamp Life* Spectrum
Efficiency (hrs)
• Incandescent/Tungsten** 5-10% 2000 Intermd.
• Xenon 5-10% 2000 Broad
• Fluorescent*** 20% 5,000-20,000 Broad
• LEDs (red)**** 20% 100,000 ? Narrow
• Metal Halide 25% 20,000 Broad
• High Pressure Sodium 30% 25,000 Intermd.
• Low Pressure Sodium 35% 25,000 Narrow
• Microwave Sulfur 35-40%+ ? Broad
* Approximate values.
** Tungsten halogen lamps have broader spectrum.
*** For VHO lamps; lower power lamps with electronic ballasts last up to ~20,000 hrs.
**** Blue and green LEDs ~5 to 10% efficient.Electric Lighting Systems for Crop Growth
Fluorescent
High-Pressure
Sodium
LEDs
Microwave
SulfurLED 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
Plant Chambers for Space Shuttle and ISS
SVET
on Mir BPS
on ISS
PGBA on
ShuttleSpaceflight Experiments with Plants
• STS-93 Shuttle Mission (1995)
• Five Leaf Cuttings in the Moist Arcillite
• 16 Days in Space
• Astroculture Plant Growth UnitPotato Tubers from Space
Space
GroundRussian “Lada” Plant Chamber on ISS
Mizuna Plants
(Chinese Cabbage)A Vegetable Production Unit for “Transit Missions” to Mars
What will it take to achieve a plant-based
life support system?Mars Deployable Greenhouse: A Pre-Prototype Design
Atmospheric Pressures Considerations
Advantages of low pressure:
Reduced structural mass
Reduced gas leakage (and resupply)
More possibilities for transparent materials
Evaporation Rate (L m -2 d-1)
16
Saturation Pressure (kPa)
5
Relative 30°C
12 Humidity 4
95% 25°C
3
8 65%
50% 2
15°C
4
1
0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100
0 25 50 75 100
Total Pressure (kPa) Total Pressure (kPa)
1 atm 1 atmPsychrometric Charts for Reduced Pressures (I. Hublitz, 2006)
From: I. Hublitz, 2006, Univ. of Florida, US.Photosynthetic Radiation at Mars Surface over 2 Martian Years (J. Clawson, 2006)
Light on Mars Compared to Light on Earth (J. Clawson, 2006)
Humans and Plants in Closed Systems Russian Tests: • BIOS Studies-Krasnoyarsk • IMBP Studies-Moscow NASA Tests: • BPC Studies, NASA-KSC • VPGC Studies, NASA-JSC • LMLSTP Studies, NASA-JSC Japanese Tests: • IES / CEEF, Rokkasho, Japan
One Human for 15 days with 11 m2 of Wheat !
Nigel Packam at NASA / JSCConstraints for Crop Production in Space:
(“Economics” of Life Support)
• Energy Requirements
• System Mass These apply for all life
support technologies,
• System Volume including the use of
• Crew Time plants
• System Reliability
For Plants, Lighting Dominates These Costs !Plants for Future Space Missions
2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030 2035 2040 2045
Shuttle
(plant experiments) Crew Exploration Vehicle (supplemental crops Mars transit)
Itnl. Space Station (plant experiments—possible salad crops)
Lunar Lander (probably no plants)
Lunar Outpost (supplemental foods)
Martian Outpost
Supplemental Foods Life SupportSome Benefits and Commerical “Spinoffs”
from NASA Crop Research
New Technologies:
• Use of LEDs for plant lighting has led to:
Photodynamic Cancer Treatments; Accelerated Healing of Wounds
• Microwave sulfur lamps -- 40% energy conversion efficiency
• Phenotype micro-arrays for cell and bacterial analysis
• NFT (hydroponic) approaches for “seed” potato production
New Knowledge:
• Information of potential for improving crop yields
• Whole canopy production of ethylene
• Novel plant responses to super-elevated CO2
• Whole canopy gas exchangeLED-Based Lighting for Treating Mucositis
Developed by Quantum Devices, Inc., Barneveld, WI, US
with NASA funding http ://www.quantumdev.com
High intensity light-emitting diode (LED)
originally developed for plant lighting for space
can be used to treat mucositis, severe oral and
digestive tract sores resulting from high-dose
chemotherapy. Clinical trials underway at the
Medical College of Wisconsin (US), Roswell
Park Cancer Inst., Buffalo (US), Instituto de
Oncologia Pediatrica, Sao Paulo (Brazil), Rush-
Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, Chicago
(US), Univ. Illinois Medical Center, Chicago
(US), Hospital Sirio Libanes, Sao Paulo (Brazil),
University Medical Center in Jerusalem (Israel).
http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/Spinoff2005/hm_1.html
http://www.warp-heals.com/resources/index.htmPhenotype MicroArray™ OmniLog®
for Cell and Bacterial Analysis,
Biolog Inc., Hayward, California (US)
Biolog, Inc.’s product lines have been built upon
http://www.biolog.com/main.html patented technology that greatly simplifies testing of
cells. Principal customers include pharmaceutical,
biotech, and cosmetic laboratories, as well as
laboratories testing for human, animal, and plant
Originating Technology/ NASA Contribution diseases.
Originally developed for developing physiological profiles for bacterial communities associated with plants
that might be used for producing food and oxygen in space. Biolog Inc. is creating powerful new cell- and
bacteria-analysis tools for use in discovering and developing new drugs on Earth. Biolog recently
announced that the Phenotype MicroArray and OmniLog products have been installed at the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory, in California (US), where genomics researchers are using the technology
to understand and characterize phenotypes of bacteria strains that are considered potential bioterrorism
agents. Other important government laboratories such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the
U.S. Department of Agriculture are also employing the technologies to better understand foodborne
pathogenic bacteria and the spread of epidemics.
See also: http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/Spinoff2005/hm_2.htmlHydroponic Potato
Production
Controlled Environment “Seed Potatoes”
Potatoes are a major crop around the
world and have been considered for
space life support systems because of
their high yields, high harvest index,
and versatility in the diet.
Potatoes are clonally propagated
either as “seed potatoes” (tubers) or
small plantlets
NASA demonstrated that potatoes
could be grown successfully in
controlled environments using
hydroponic techniques (Wheeler et al.,
1990) and this approach is now being
used as means for producing disease-
For Plantings free seed potatoes, which produce
In the Field higher field yields.Record Potato Yield
Nutrients
High Light
High CO2 The world record for potato yield
is about 100 metric tons per
hectare (fresh weight).
A 132-day test in a large
controlled environment room at
the Wisconsin Biotron produced
a yield of 197 tons ha-1, or 2 X
that of the best yields ever
(Tibbitts et al., 1993).
How did NASA achieve this?
Lighting was increased by
extending the photoperiod, and
plants were given elevated CO 2
and watered with nutrient
solution to speed growth.Record Wheat Yields
• The world record for wheat in the
field is 230 bushels per acre. This
is 1.54 kg per m2. NASA’s highest
wheat yield, published in Plant
Physiology (1988) was 60 g per m2
per day.
• At a 120 day life cycle in controlled
environments, NASA’s ratio to the
field record is almost 5 times higher
~ at about 1074 bushels per acre.
• How did NASA achieve this? We
used much higher light levels than
in the field and hydroponic culture.
Elevated CO2 was responsible for
about 40% of the yield increase.NASA Advanced Life Support Team, Hangar L
Kennedy Space Center, FloridaPhytoconveyor--Vegetable Production for
the International Space Station
Photo courtesy of Dr. Yuli Berkovich, Inst. Biomedical Problems, Moscow.You can also read
