The Akron Legal News

OSU researchers develop system to grow lettuce in space

RICK ADAMCZAK
Special to the Legal News
Published: September 27, 2012

Floating around in outer space hundreds of miles above Earth and craving a fresh salad?

Some Ohio State University researchers are working on solving that problem, helping NASA figure out the best way to grow food aboard space exploration units.

The team, from the university’s Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, designed and built a food-production system for NASA’s Deep Space Habitat, a space module with living quarters, workspaces and laboratories that is being created for possible long-distance space travel by humans.

It’s one of many food-production systems that NASA is studying for possible use in space.

The OSU researchers’ system is small because of space constraints in the Deep Space Habitat and consists of an 11- by 18-inch metal plate topped by a plastic plant growth tray and outfitted with a watering tube, computer-controlled valves and a variety of sensors to monitor growing conditions.

A total of eight of these plates can fit in the Deep Space Habitat’s circular plant atrium area, which is located between the module’s first and second levels.

Because soil is too heavy to carry into space, plants, small vegetables such as lettuce, herbs and radishes, grow in a nutrient solution, like in a hydroponic system.

“Our system is automated so that the crew doesn’t have to spend too much time taking care of the plants,” said Peter Ling, an associate professor in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering and faculty advisor in the project.

He said the system controls irrigation and monitors plant temperature and health and at the bottom of the unit there is a weight plate that detects water leakage and water loss by plants, and also estimates growth.

“The idea is that this unit will one day be a regenerative life-support system not just for growing food, but also for purifying the air, producing oxygen and cleaning wastewater,” Ling said.

The system was developed as part of NASA’s 2011-12 eXploration Habitat Academic Innovation Challenge.

The program provides grants to university teams to design and produce functional products of interest to the Deep Space Habitat project.

Ohio State’s proposal was accepted and funded in June 2011, and the prototype was delivered and demonstrated at Houston’s Johnson Space Center in July 2012.

“Food production will become a critical component of a life-support system as longer-duration missions take astronauts off Earth and make resupply of consumables more challenging,” said Gioia Massa, a postdoctoral fellow in NASA’s Surface Systems Division. “Launching food into space is expensive, but seeds are small and have a low mass, so producing food will become more cost-effective over long durations and distances.”

Also, growing plants will also help recycle the atmosphere and provide psychological benefits for a crew, both as living organisms and as fresh produce, said Massa.

NASA is testing the Ohio State system and many other DSH technologies this month at Johnson Space Center, she said.

A crew of four is living and working in the habitat, communicating with a mission control center and simulating a deep-space mission.

“The OSU system will grow ‘Outredgeous’ lettuce, a red leaf lettuce that not only tastes great but could provide important antioxidants for the crew,” Massa said.

She said the environmental data Ohio State’s food-production system collects will allow NASA scientists to better understand the plant growth environment and develop improved growth systems in the future.

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