2023-06-152023-06-152023-07-16ICES-2023-125https://hdl.handle.net/2346/94580Lashelle Spencer, Amentum Services, USAJennifer Gooden, Amentum Services, USAAaron Curry, Amentum Services, USAMatthew Romeyn, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), USARaymond Wheeler, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), USATakiyah Sirmons, Leidos, USAICES500: Life Science/Life Support Research TechnologiesThe 52nd International Conference on Environmental Systems was held in Calgary, Canada, on 16 July 2023 through 20 July 2023.Long-duration missions beyond low-Earth orbit will encounter challenges in maintaining adequate nutrition and acceptability in the food system. In situ production of fresh produce can supplement nutrient deficiencies in the prepackaged diet. Currently there is a relatively small number of crops that can be reliably grown in space for space crop production efforts. An intriguing area of new investigation is into novel types of microgreens that have the potential to be sources of calories, fat, carbohydrates, and protein. These sources of nutrition are not obtainable in significant quantities with current pick and eat crops. Many microgreen cultivars are also sources of nutrients of interest, such as Vitamins B1, C, K and elements such as potassium. Microgreens should be selected to address specific nutritional deficits as identified by the Human Research Program, with an emphasis on having a diversity of crops to meet nutritional requirements and crew acceptability. To achieve this, the concept of Crop Readiness Level (CRL) has been developed to gauge readiness of crops for spaceflight applications. This includes assessing environmental compatibility, food safety considerations, relevant nutritional analysis, and sensory analysis. Recent testing at Kennedy Space Center has focused on the advancement of a variety novel microgreens along the CRL. These varieties were grown under 150 µmol m-1 s-1 PPFD from LED lights, 3000 ppm CO2, and 23°C to simulate an ISS environment. Crops will be harvested and yield, baseline microbiological, nutritional analysis (Vitamins B1, C, K; elemental analysis; proximate analysis) and sensory evaluation will be performed. These baseline data are essential to selecting candidate crops for future missions in addition to assessing crop production hardware and changes in environmental conditions on future crop performance and nutritional quality.application/pdfengMicrogreensNovelSpace Crop ProductionNutrientsFood SafetyCrew AcceptabilityCrop Readiness LevelPresentations