Supplemental Food Production With Plants: A Review of NASA Research

Abstract

Bioregenerative life-support systems for space have been investigated for 60 years, and plants and other photosynthetic organisms are central to this concept for their ability to produce food and O2, remove CO2, and help recycle wastewater. Many of the studies targeted larger scale systems that might be used for planetary surface missions, with estimates ranging from about 40 to 50 m2 (or more) of crop growing area needed per person. But early space missions will not have these volumes available for crop growth. How can plants be used in the interim, where perhaps <5 m2 of growing area might be available? One option is to grow plants as supplemental, fresh foods. This could improve the quality and diversity of the meals on the International Space Station or on the Lunar surface, and supply important nutrients to the astronauts for missions like Mars transit, and longer duration Martian surface missions. Although plant chambers for supplemental food production would be relatively small, they could provide the bioregenerative research community with platforms for testing different crops in a space environment and serve as a stepping stone to build larger bioregenerative systems for future missions. Here we review some of NASA’s research and development (ground and spaceflight) targeting fresh food production systems for space. We encourage readers to also look into the extensive work by other space agencies and universities around the world on this same topic.

Plant and microbial science and technology as cornerstones to Bioregenerative Life Support Systems in space

“…On Earth, plants need to invest resources to build leaves capable of converting carbon into biomass by enhancing photosynthetic carbon gain and controlling water losses through evapotranspiration. Photosynthetic and hydraulic performance is mediated by structural and physiological traits, which have evolved over millions of years in the presence of “Earth” factors 31 , 32 , while they can be severely affected by space factors 33 . Among these, there are those factors present on Earth but at different levels (e.g., temperature, light, pressure, atmosphere composition), new factors (e.g., altered gravity and ionizing radiation), and secondary factors such as physical processes altered by new factors (e.g., lack of buoyancy-driven convection) 34 .…”

Large-Scale Crop Production for the Moon and Mars: Current Gaps and Future Perspectives

“…Space crop production efforts utilize the lessons learned from growing plants on the ground and in orbit. This knowledge, in combination with the expertise across NASA centers, academia, and industry serves to provide a framework for crop production systems for deep space travel (Johnson et al, 2021). Prior work conducted in plant chambers aboard the Shuttle and ISS has helped identify knowledge gaps and technology needs for space crop production (Supplementary Table S1).…”

Space Biomedicine: A Unique Opportunity to Rethink the Relationships between Physics and Biology

“…Studies performed in microgravity are going to disclose exciting new areas of investigation, and can promote the development of novel products for the benefit of humankind. Adaptive capabilities of plants and crops as well as the emergence of new “varieties” showing higher nutritional values, yields, and critical advantages (e.g., resistance against high and low temperatures, salt stress, microbial and pest attacks) can be conveniently exploited to improve food production [ 90 ]. Growing plants or unicellular organisms such as fungi and algae in a microgravity environment could reactivate either dormant genes or promote a different gene expression pattern, supporting the synthesis of unexpected products such as drugs [ 91 ].…”