growing food in space
“
OUR GREENHOUSE
VALIDATED THE IMPORTANCE
OF FRESH VEGETABLE COLORS
THAT CAN’T BE DUPLICATED AND
THE EFFECTS OF A GREEN PLANT OR
A RUBY RED FRUIT, LIKE A TOMATO
OR A STRAWBERRY, FOR PEOPLE
LIVING AND WORKING IN AN EXTREME
ENVIRONMENT SUCH AS SPACE.”
“Turning things off today would be like setbacks in the
mid-1990s, where it took 15 to 20 years for groups to start to
put the pieces back together again. We created a whole oper-
ational system that is in jeopardy of continuation in the short
term because there’s no one stepping forward to pick up that
ball,” says Giacomelli.
As godfather to the operation, Giacomelli is stoic. “This is
my baby and you want all babies to grow up and succeed as
much as possible. I’m proud that we moved the ball forward,
and there’s enough information we’ve developed so the idea
won’t be lost. This is a child that had a unique childhood, grew
up and got its first job, started being productive—and then got
laid off. It’s waiting for a new job opportunity to present itself.”
Systems engineer and principal technical investigator for the
project, Roberto Furfaro, adds, “We’ve been in similar situ-
ations before where we phased down to a minimum to keep
things working while we looked for future funding to continue
the project and return to full research status.”
While there has been a lot of talk, but no commitment to
this point, discussions continue with the HI-SEAS project in
Hawaii, a simulated Mars base camp where astronauts wear
protective suits over extended time periods. “They are mission
oriented, rather than worrying about life support systems,”
Furfaro says, “but if consideration turned to the element of
food production, there’s a possibility that one of our chamber
units could be included in their program.”
Even as the LED and high pressure sodium lamps are
being turned down to dim in the Arizona desert lab, similar
programs are underway elsewhere in the world. Giacomelli
is an advisor to the German Space Agency EDEN greenhouse
project (a part of the European Space Agency) for a demonstra-
tion Mars-Lunar structure being constructed in the extreme
environment of Antarctica, where a researcher will live for a
year starting in January to further demonstrate the viability of
such a food production unit. “These researchers will be using
technology we developed during our grant,” he says.
That technology is expected to also play a part in the
European Space Agency’s project in Spain where they have
also put together a closed food production facility.
Food and the future are also center stage in China
where four students are already living in something
called the Lunar Palace. “I saw it before they closed the
doors and sealed off the researchers to experiment with
food production and waste recycling,” Giacomelli says.
“They’ll be gaining a lot of practical, real-person, real-time
experience that we are not able to do now.”
46
feature
Top: Side-by-side Mars-Lunar greenhouse chambers are illuminated by
LED (left) and sodium vapor lamps.
Bottom: At 18-feet long and eight-feet wide, each Mars-Lunar Greenhouse
can produce half the caloric requirements of an astronaut every day.