An Advanced Scheduling Model for Crop Production in Bio-Regenerative Advanced Life Support (ALS) Systems

Development of a crop production system that can be used on the International Space Station, long duration transit missions, and a lunar/Mars habitat, is a part of NASA's Advanced Life Support (ALS) research efforts. Selected crops require the capability to be grown under environmental conditions that might be encountered in the open cabin of a space vehicle. It is also likely that the crops will be grown in a mixed-cropping system to increase the production efficiency and variety for the crew's dietary supplementation. Three candidate ALS salad crops, radish (Raphanus sativus L. cv. Cherry Bomb II), lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. cv. Flandria) and bunching onion (Allium fistulosum L. cv. Kinka) were grown hydroponically as either monoculture (control) or mixed-crop within a walk-in growth chamber with baseline environments maintained at 50% relative humidity, 300 μmol·m-2·s-1 PPF and a 16-hour light/8-hour dark photoperiod under cool-white fluorescent lamps. Environmental treatments in separate tests were performed with either 400, 1200, or 4000 μmol·mol-1 CO2 combined with temperature treatments of 25 °C or 28 °C. Weekly time-course harvests were taken over 28 days of growth. Results showed that none of the species experienced negative effects when grown together under mixed-crop conditions compared to monoculture growth conditions.

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Physiological Aspects of Integrated Crop Production in Advanced Life Support Systems

10.4271/981561 ◽

1998 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Geoffrey R. Cloutier ◽

Richard Côté ◽

Michael A. Stasiak ◽

Michael A. Dixon ◽

Karin E. Arnold

Keyword(s):

Crop Production ◽

Life Support ◽

Support Systems ◽

Advanced Life Support ◽

Life Support Systems

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(305) Influence of Hypobaria on Gas Exchange and Growth of Lettuce for Advanced Life Support Systems (ALS)

HortScience ◽

10.21273/hortsci.40.4.1011b ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 40 (4) ◽

pp. 1011B-1011

Author(s):

Chuanjiu He ◽

Fred T. Davies ◽

Ronald Lacey

Keyword(s):

Biomass Production ◽

Space Flight ◽

Crop Production ◽

Life Support ◽

Production Systems ◽

Dark Respiration ◽

Ambient Pressure ◽

Advanced Life Support ◽

Low Pressure ◽

Production Cycles

There are advantages in growing plants under hypobaric (reduced atmospheric pressure) conditions in biomass production for extraterrestrial base or space-flight environments. Elevated levels of the plant hormone ethylene occur in enclosed crop production systems and in space-flight environments—leading to adverse plant growth and sterility. Objectives of this research were to characterize the influence of hypobaria on growth and ethylene evolution of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. cv. Buttercrunch). Growth was comparable in lettuce grown under low (25 kPa) and ambient (101 kPa) total gas pressures. However, tip burn occurred under ambient, but not low pressure—in part because of adverse ethylene levels. Under ambient pressure, there were higher CO2 assimilation rates and dark respiration rates (higher night consumption of metabolites) compared to low pressure. This could lead to greater growth (biomass production) of low pressure plants during longer crop production cycles.

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(33) Evaluation of Salad Crop Growth under Environmental Conditions for Space Exploration using Mixed Crop Versus Monoculture Hydroponic Systems

HortScience ◽

10.21273/hortsci.41.4.1076d ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 41 (4) ◽

pp. 1076D-1077 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sharon L. Edney ◽

Jeffrey T. Richards ◽

Matthew D. Sisko ◽

Neil C. Yorio ◽

Gary W. Stutte ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Environmental Conditions ◽

Crop Production ◽

Time Course ◽

Production Efficiency ◽

Life Support ◽

Space Station ◽

Space Vehicle ◽

Advanced Life Support ◽

Dry Mass ◽

Mixed Crop

The development of a crop production system that can be used on the International Space Station, long-duration transit missions, and lunar or Mars habitats, has been a part of NASA's Advanced Life Support (ALS) research efforts. Crops that can be grown under environmental conditions that might be encountered in the open cabin of a space vehicle would be an advantageous choice. The production efficiency of the system would be enhanced by growing these crops in a mixed-crop arrangement. This would also increase the variety of fresh foods available for the crew's dietary supplementation. Three candidate ALS salad crops, radish (Raphanus sativus L. cv. Cherry Bomb II), lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. cv. Flandria), and bunching onion (Allium fistulosum L. cv. Kinka) were grown hydroponically as either monoculture (control) or mixed-crop within a walk-in growth chamber with baseline environments maintained at 22 °C, 50% RH, 17.2 mol·m-2·d-1 light intensity and a 16-h light/8-h dark photoperiod under cool-white fluorescent lamps. Tests were carried out at three different CO2 concentrations: 400, 1200, and 4000 μmol·mol-1. Weekly time-course harvests were taken over 28 days of growth, and fresh mass, dry mass, and harvest index were determined. Results showed that none of the species experienced negative effects when grown together under mixed-crop conditions compared to monoculture growth conditions under the range of environmental conditions tested.

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(147) Effect of Hypobaria, Oxygen, and Carbon Dioxide on Gas Exchange, Ethylene Evolution, and Growth of Lettuce Plants for NASA Advanced Life Support Systems

HortScience ◽

10.21273/hortsci.41.4.1059a ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 41 (4) ◽

pp. 1059A-1059

Author(s):

Chuanjiu He ◽

Fred T. Davies ◽

Ronald E. Lacey ◽

Sheetal Rao

Keyword(s):

Gas Exchange ◽

Plant Growth ◽

Biomass Production ◽

Crop Production ◽

Life Support ◽

Dark Period ◽

Ambient Pressure ◽

Advanced Life Support ◽

Low Pressure ◽

Ethylene Evolution

There are engineering and payload advantages in growing plants under hypobaric (reduced atmospheric pressure) conditions in biomass production for extraterrestrial base or spaceflight environments. Objectives of this research were to characterize the influence of hypobaria on growth, gas exchange, and ethylene evolution of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. cv. Buttercrunch). Elevated levels of the plant hormone, ethylene, occur in enclosed crop production systems and in space-flight environments—leading to adverse plant growth and sterility. Lettuce plants were grown under variable total gas pressures [25 (low) or 101 kPa (ambient)]. During short growth periods of up to 10 days, growth was comparable between low and ambient pressure plants. Regardless of total pressure, plant growth was reduced at 6 kPa pO2 compared to 12 and 21 kPa pO2. At 6 kPa pO2 there was greater growth reduction and stress with ambient (101 kPa) than low (25kPa) pressure plants. Plants at 25/12 kPa pO2 had comparable CO2 assimilation and a 25% lower dark-period respiration than 101/21 kPa pO2 (ambient) plants. Greater efficiency of CO2 assimilation/dark-period respiration occurred with low pressure plants at 6 kPa pO2. Low pressure plants had a reduced CO2 saturation point (100 Pa CO2) compared with ambient (150 Pa CO2). Low pO2 lowered CO2 compensation points for both 25 and 101 kPa plants, i.e., likely due to reduced O2 competing with CO2 for Rubisco. Ethylene was 70% less under low than ambient pressure. High ethylene decreased CO2 assimilation rate of 101/12 kPa O2 plants. The higher dark-period respiration rates (higher night consumption of metabolites) of ambient pressure plants could lead to greater growth (biomass production) of low pressure plants during longer crop production cycles.

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