Browsing by Author "Bunchek, Jess"
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Item Summary of Research and Outreach Activities during the 2021 Season of the EDEN ISS Antarctic Greenhouse(51st International Conference on Environmental Systems, 7/10/2022) Vrakking, Vincent; Zabel, Paul; Dorn, Markus; Schubert, Daniel; Bunchek, JessThe EDEN ISS greenhouse is a space-analogue test facility near the German Neumayer Station III in Antarctica. The greenhouse design, construction, and test phase began in 2015, and the facility was deployed in January 2018. From 2018 until early 2022, the greenhouse was in continuous operation during every winter-over period, with the 2021 season being the latest to be completed. The purpose of the facility is to enable multidisciplinary research on topics related to plant cultivation on future human space exploration missions. Research on food quality and safety, plant health monitoring, microbiology, system validation, human factors, horticultural sciences, and resource demand was conducted. During the 2021 season, research and operation of the EDEN ISS greenhouse was done as part of a DLR-NASA collaboration with an American on-site operator. Part of this collaboration was testing new crops like chili pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, and beans, which had never been grown inside EDEN ISS. These crops were complemented by a variety of lettuces, mustard greens, herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, and kohlrabi. In total, approximately 300 kg of fresh produce was harvested during the 2021 season. Frozen and dried plant subsamples were collected and transferred back to Europe and the United States for further investigation. Additional samples were taken from the nutrient delivery subsystem and from surfaces inside the EDEN ISS facility in order to continue the microbiological research activities from previous years. Another research focus was capturing crew time for all activities inside the MTF and select support activities inside NM-III to increase the understanding of work time demand for future food production systems in space. DLR and NASA also continued the numerous outreach activities of the past years. This paper summarizes both the research and the outreach activities during the latest operational season of the EDEN ISS Antarctic greenhouse in 2021.Item Sustained Veggie: A Continuous Food Production Comparison(50th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 7/12/2021) Curry, Aaron; Bunchek, Jess; Romeyn, MatthewThe International Space Station�s Veggie system intermittently supplies the crew with fresh produce. To assess the potential for continuous crop production in Veggie and develop a baseline for future space crop production systems, a 120-day study was conducted to determine methodology for inputs, optimal yield, and crew involvement. �Amara� mustard and �Red Russian� kale were grown as initial crops, followed by �Extra Dwarf� pak choi and shungiku as final crops. Previous grow-outs in Veggie have included harvests at 28-35 days after initiation. In this study, a 56-day grow-out with multiple harvests from the same plants was compared to the conventional, single harvest Veggie schedule. Unlike previous Veggie studies which grew all plants simultaneously, this test staggered initiation and harvest, aiming for consistent and increased production. Plant pillows were initiated in pairs weekly and positioned to reduce shading. Completed pillows were immediately replaced with fresh ones. The multi-harvest scheme used fewer pillows, totaling 46% less pillow mass than the single harvest method. Scaled to 56-day increments, yield varied by crop and harvest scheme. �Red Russian� kale yielded similarly across harvest schemes. In the multiple-harvest schedule, �Amara� mustard and shungiku yielded 23% to 25% higher, respectively, while �Extra Dwarf� pak choi had 43% lower yield. Microbial analysis of the plants indicated no culturable human pathogens. Microbial load of a given plant appears to depend more on system age than plant age. Across harvest methods, aerobic plate counts from final crops were higher than those of initial crops. This project also considered the complexity of crew involvement in a continuous production scenario. New crew procedures that periodically remove plant material from the Veggie root mat are needed under continuous production to prevent potential pathogens and unpleasant odors. This study supports future space crop production scenarios and was funded by NASA�s Human Research Program.Item Workload Measurements in the EDEN ISS Greenhouse during the 2021 Antarctic Overwintering Mission(2023 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2023-07-16) Zeidler, Conrad; Bunchek, JessFrom January 2018 to February 2022, the EDEN ISS project investigated technologies for plant cultivation and operation procedures for planetary surface greenhouses. The EDEN ISS space analog test facility was located near the German Neumayer Station III in Antarctica. For the fourth and final overwintering expedition from 2021 to early 2022, a tenth person joined the Neumayer Station III overwintering team as the dedicated on-site operator of the EDEN ISS greenhouse, supported by an interagency collaboration between DLR and NASA. For this final mission of the EDEN ISS Antarctic campaign, 790 g/m2/day fresh produce was grown within the 12.5 m2 plant cultivation area of the EDEN ISS greenhouse � comparable to production in prior missions. As in previous years, operator workload was assessed using the NASA Task Load Index to investigate which tasks/procedures could be facilitated in terms of workload, how workload changed over the course of the mission, and how workload could be reduced in the future. In this paper, we present the results of the NASA Task Load Index measurements conducted from 4 October 2021 to 26 December 2021. Detailed workload measurements are presented with respect to specific recurring tasks, e.g., daily/weekly/monthly routines, harvesting, and pruning, as well as workload on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. The measurements show that there is a need to reduce the workload of the on-site operator in a space analog greenhouse. These studies provide valuable insight for operating future greenhouses on the Moon and Mars, which should already be included in the planning phases of such space missions.