Browsing by Author "Massa, Gioia"
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Item A New Plant Habitat Facility for the ISS(46th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2016-07-10) Morrow, Robert; Richter, Robert; Tellez, Guiliermo; Monje, Oscar; Wheeler, Raymond; Massa, Gioia; Dufour, Nicole; Onate, BryanThe NASA Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) is configured as a quad-locker payload to be mounted in a standard EXpedite the PRo-cessing of Experiments to the Space Station Rack on the International Space Station. It is envisioned to be the largest plant growth chamber yet to be developed for ISS. The APH is designed to support commercial and fundamental plant research by providing a broad range of environmental control, analytical, and operational capabilities. The APH science accommodation strategy is to optimize these capabilities within resource constraints (mass, volume, power and crew time). Components of the APH consists of the Growth Light Assembly, Thermal Control Subsystem, Science Carrier, Structural Mounting Assembly, Growth Chamber, Water Recovery and Distribution Subassembly, Power Distribution Assembly, Environmental Control System, Avionics and Fluids Drawer. APH integrates proven microgravity plant growth technologies and is based on an open architecture concept to allow critical subsystems to be removed and replaced onboard the ISS.Item Crop Readiness Level (CRL): A Scale to Track Progression of Crop Testing for Space(49th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2019-07-07) Romeyn, Matthew; Spencer, Lashelle; Massa, Gioia; Wheeler, RaymondThe development of engineering technologies and hardware for aerospace applications is often tracked on a 1-9 scale of readiness or TRL, with a “1” representing very basic or fundamental principles, and a “9” being flight tested, functional hardware. Preparing to grow crops for supplemental food and eventual life support contributions on space missions faces similar challenges. Nearly 20 years ago, the concept of a “crop readiness level” was suggested at a bioregenerative life support conference held at Kennedy Space Center, but there was little follow up to this. We propose to revive this concept to track the preparation and testing of different crop species for eventual use in the unique environment of space. For the sake of uniformity, we recommend a 1-9 scale, with a “1” being just the identification of a potential crop, followed by some basic horticultural testing, cultivars trials, then testing growth and yield under various controlled environments, progression to more space-like environments and hardware, understanding the nutritional, organoleptic, and food safety aspects of the crop, initial testing in space, and a final stage of growing the crop for food in space (“9”). We attempted to make the scaling logical and progressive, but our main goal is to initiate a dialogue in the space, plant research community to develop a scale for assessing crop readiness.Item Dwarf Tomato and Pepper Cultivars for Space Crops(49th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2019-07-07) Spencer, Lashelle; Hummerick, Mary; Stutte, Gary; Sirmons, Takiya; Graham, Thomas; Massa, Gioia; Wheeler, RaymondCrops for space life support systems and in particular, early supplemental food production systems must be able to fit into the confined volume of space craft or space habitats. For example, spaceflight plant chambers such as Svet, Lada, Astroculture, BPS, and Veggie provided approximately 15-40 cm of growing height for plant shoots. Six cultivars each of tomato and pepper were selected for initial study based on their advertised dwarf growth and high yields. Plants were grown in 10-cm pots with solid potting medium and controlled-release fertilizer to simulate the rooting constraints that might be faced in space environments. Lighting was provided by fluorescent lamps (~300 umol m-2 s-1) and a 16 h light / 8 h dark photoperiod. Cultivars were then down selected to three each for pepper (cvs. Red Skin, Pompeii, and Fruit Basket) and tomato (cvs. Red Robin, Mohamed, and Sweet n’ Neat). In all cases (pepper and tomato), the plants grew to an approximate height of 20 cm and produced between 200 and 300 g fruit fresh mass per plant. In previous hydroponic studies with unrestricted root growth, Fruit Basket pepper and Red Robin tomato produced much larger plants with taller shoots. The findings suggest that high value, nutritious crops like tomato and pepper could be grown within small volumes of space habitats, but horticultural issues, such as rooting volume could be important in controlling plant size.Item Effects of Supplemental Far-Red Light on Leafy Green Crops for Space(2020 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2020-07-31) Spencer, Lashelle; Wheeler, Raymond; Romeyn, Matthew; Massa, Gioia; Mickens, MatthewThe use of plants to provide food and eventual bioregenerative life support has been studied for nearly 50 years. A logical starting point for early missions like the International Space Station (ISS) is to grow leafy greens to supplement the crew’s diet of packaged foods. In an attempt to expand the list of potential crops, NASA conducted ground studies with eight leafy greens: ‘Dragoon’ lettuce, ‘Extra Dwarf’ pak choi, shungiku, ‘Barese’ Swiss chard, ‘Red Russian’ kale, ‘Toscano’ kale, ‘Amara’ mustard, and ‘Outredgeous’ lettuce, which has been used in prior ground and flight tests with the Veggie Plant Chamber. Plants were grown for 28 days under 320 µmol m-2 s-1 PPFD from LED lights, 3000 ppm CO2, and 23C to simulate an environment similar to the Veggie Plant Chamber aboard ISS. Half of the plants were given ~7 µmol m-2 s-1 and the other half, ~23 µmol m-2 s-1 of supplemental far-red (735 nm). Supplemental far-red light resulted in increased fresh mass yields for some species but not all. This could be due to the relative small amount of far-red photons even in the supplemental treatment. ‘Extra Dwarf’ pak choi and ‘Dragoon’ lettuce produced the highest yields (70-80 g FM/plant) under both lighting regimes. A more consistent response to supplemental far-red light was increased plant canopy cover and increased shoot heights, which may be a consideration for volume constrained systems in space.Item New Frontiers in Food Production Beyond LEG(49th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2019-07-07) Monje, Oscar; Dreschel, Tom; Nugent, Matthew; Hummerick, Mary; Spencer, Lashelle; Romeyn, Matthew; Massa, Gioia; Wheeler, Raymond; Fritsche, RalphNew technologies will be needed as mankind moves towards exploration of cislunar space, the Moon and Mars. Although many advances in our understanding of the effects of spaceflight on plant growth have been achieved in the last 40 years, spaceflight plant growth systems have been primarily designed to support space biology experiments where the mission ended after the completion of a series of experiments. Recently, the need for a sustainable and robust food system for future missions beyond LEO has identified gaps in current technologies for food production. The goal is to develop safe and sustainable food production systems with reduced resupply mass and crew time than current systems. New soilless water and nutrient delivery systems are needed to avoid constant resupply of bulky single-use porous media. Autonomous plant health and food safety monitoring systems are needed for to ensure that the food produced is suitable for supplementing crew diets with fresh and nutritious salad crops. New plant species and cultivars with improved contents of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals when grown elevated CO2 concentrations found in spacecraft. These improvements in food production technologies will enable the design of more robust and sustainable life support systems for manned exploration missions beyond Low Earth Orbit.Item Review of Targeted Lighting Approaches for Controlled Environment Agriculture in Space Habitats(51st International Conference on Environmental Systems, 7/10/2022) Hardy, James; Massa, Gioia; Nabity, James; Kociolek, PatrickProviding light to plants is expected to dominate the operational costs of agriculture in space habitats. Not only is lighting power intensive, but power introduced into a crop chamber must also be removed to maintain thermal equilibrium. To decrease the power and subsequent cooling demands, advancements in lighting methods must be implemented. Lighting efficiency improvements are limited as LEDs are converging to their maximum theoretical efficacies, which also reduces the effect of optimizing the spectrum to boost efficiencies. Instead, one could consider the effectiveness of light delivery to the canopy by each diode. Plant chambers like the Veggie and the Advanced Plant Habitat on the International Space Station provide power uniformly across the light fixture, often lighting walls and empty spaces, especially when the plants are small. To help ensure that light introduced to the growth area is useful, light fixtures may employ a targeted approach, where emitters are controlled such that those pointed directly towards foliage are activated while others are not. This paper reviews previous targeted lighting approaches and identifies a candidate method that could be applied in future controlled environments, especially those aboard space habitats.Item Troubleshooting Performance Failures of Chinese Cabbage for Veggie on the ISS(49th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2019-07-07) Burgner, Samuel; Morrow, Robert; Massa, Gioia; Wheeler, Raymond; Romeyn, Matthew; Mitchell, CaryChinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L. cv. Tokyo Bekana) ranked highly for growth performance and nutritional composition among vegetable crops screened and subsequently down-selected as candidates for growth in the Veggie plant-growth unit on ISS for an astronaut pick-and-eat scenario of crew diet supplementation. On orbit, plants growing in Veggie are subjected to cabin environments of the ISS, which were designed for crew comfort, not necessarily for plant growth and productivity. During experiments in which ‘Tokyo Bekana’ was grown from seed to harvest in ground-based controlled environments mimicking as many environmental variables matching ISS cabin conditions as possible, it unexpectedly exhibited sub-par growth performance accompanied by chlorosis (yellowing) and necrosis (browning and drying) of leaves. This did not occur for other Veggie candidate vegetable-crop species. Systematic attempts to troubleshoot which environmental and/or cultural parameters caused or contributed to sub-standard growth and these stress symptoms involved issues related to the water/nutrient-delivery system used (PILLOWs vs. PONDs vs. DRUMs); issues pertaining to LED lighting (spectral ratios, intensity) from the ground-based Veggie analog chambers used (BPSEs); potential micronutrient toxicities of the Arcillite plant-growth medium used; controlled-release fertilizer doses and ratios; and ISS ambient cabin environmental conditions of relative humidity, carbon dioxide concentration, and air temperature. Individual systematic investigations of these parameters suggested some potential contributing factors or conditions, but results were not definitive, suggesting that interactions of multiple factors may have contributed to the sub-par growth performance of Chinese cabbage. Trouble-shooting efforts will be detailed including specific outcomes as well as side investigations to pinpoint key factors most limiting Chinese cabbage growth and performance both in Veggie on ISS as well as in ground-based trials using BPSe Veggie analogues. One lesson learned is that all controllable ISS-like environmental conditions must be mimicked as closely as possible during ground-based trials.