Scientist today are working on developing ways to not only get food and supplies out to space travelers, but are now harboring ideas and prototypes of future space greenhouses and planetary domes. This will allow astronauts to survive in environments outside of earth for longer periods of time in order to make quicker progress on space technology and interstellar travel.
Certain prototypes such as sketches and smaller dome experiments have been created and tested in centers within the International Space Station (ISS). Although these prototypes have been developing for years all of the systems are purely mechanical meaning that all food and plant seeds would have to be carried over by rocket to the moon and surrounding planets. NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is also carrying its own load as far as developing models that were merely science novels a short decade ago.
The real trouble lies within the details of selecting the ideal plant that will harvest enough food in a somewhat short amount of time and will continue to grow with much success in an unfamiliar, weightless greenhouse environment. Several tests have been conducted concerning the types of plants currently able to survive in outer space. The ISS is presently performing sample experiments that are testing the longevity and vitality of plants that are able to survive with less natural air and will not die due to inhaling their own exhaled oxygen. Researchers are surveying a variety of wheat, potatoes, rice, lettuce, and other plants that might potentially meet their criteria as the perfect space plant.
Key Reasons For Growing Food In Space And What Researchers In The Field Are Saying About It
- Help reduce the weight of the supplies that are needed to be carried off of Earth and into Space (i.e. Enough food for Space Missions)
- Too create enough food for long term exploration on the moon and surrounding planets.
- For recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen to continually replenish the air for space travelers
- In order to give the possibility of future civilizations able to survive on other planets and create an easy transition for interstellar space traveling in many years to come
- The greenhouse facility will nurture plants and crops and can also act as a safe haven if systems on the planet or in the space rocket fail
- “In order to have affordable -- and even doable -- long term exploration of space, you need to incorporate biology into the life support system.” – Chris Brown (Director of Space Programs at North Carolina State University)
- “If we really want to leave the earth on a permanent basis, we need to figure out how this blue ball in space supports all of us and somehow replicate the parts that are necessary so that we can move on.” – Jay Garland (Principal Scientist for Bioregenerative Life Support Project at Dynamac, Inc. at KSC)
- “To make the best use of plants off Earth we have to understand the limits for growing them at low pressure and then we have to understand why those limits exist.” – Rob Ferl (Center for Space Agriculture Biotechnology Research and Education)
- “Maybe we can’t quite do it now, but nothing we are considering are against the laws of physics or chemistry or nature.” – Chris Brown (Director of Space Programs at North Carolina State University)
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