Crop Effects on Closed System Element Cycling for Human Life Support in Space

Abstract

Nutrient recycling in a space-based Bioregenerative Life Support System (BLSS) will require an understanding of nutrient dosage effects on crop production, plant tissue partitioning, and geochemical fates within crop systems. Sodium (Na + ), fluoride (F − ), and iodide (I − ) are found in human waste streams. These elements were examined using crops in hydroponic systems. Lettuce, radish, spinach, and beet were used to study Na

Sustaining Astronauts: Resource Limitations, Technology Needs, and Parallels between Spaceflight Food Systems and those on Earth

“…However, major challenges remain to be solved with nutrient balances and efficiencies that could cause failures or increase costs in the tightly controlled environments within spacecraft. One long-standing concern for using crops to recycle nutrients from urine is the sodium content, which is not needed by plants and so causes osmotic stress or toxicity [49][50][51]. Processing and safety protocols that would require additional resources would also need to be established before the use of any wastewater could be considered for food crops.…”