New Frontiers in Food Production Beyond LEG

New 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.