Hydroponics references
2004-08-11 02:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
archershipsGrow More Nutritious Vegetables Without Soil, James D. Taylor, Santa Anna, Calif.: Parkside Press Publishing Co., 1983.
Home Hydroponics...and how to do it!, Lem Jones, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1977.
Hydroponic Food Production, 4th ed., Dr. Howard Resh, Santa Barbara, Calif.: Woodbridge Press, 1989.
Hydroponics for the Home Gardener, Stewart Kenyon, Toronto, Ont., Canada: Van Nostrand Reinhold Ltd., 1979.
Mitchell CA. 1994. Bioregenerative life-support systems. Am J Clin Nutr. 60:820S-824
http://www.rso.cornell.edu/scitech/archive/97sum/plants.html
Plant-Based Life Support in Space
Future living? Bioregenerative technology may eventually help sustain humans exploring space.
by Amy Snyder
In March four engineers at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, re-entered civilization after spending 60 days sealed in a three-story, 6-meter diameter chamber. During their stay, the crew recycled just about everything: air, water, and even urine. Nine months before the team's isolation, another quartet spent a month doing the same. Less than a year earlier, a British chemist inhabited a sealed plant growth chamber for 15 days, obtaining all of his oxygen from 30,000 wheat plants that kept him company.
Sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie, right? Even Buck Rogers might be surprised to learn that regenerative life support systems based on combinations of biological and physical processes may be key to sustaining humans on future long-term lunar and planetary missions. Although NASA administrator Dan Goldin has made no solid plans to send people on any lengthy space missions beyond Earth's orbit in the near future, the space agency currently shells out $10 million annually for advanced life support (ALS) research.
ALS aims to provide enough food, water, and oxygen for a crew to operate indefinitely in space with little resupply from Earth using specially-designed regenerative, or recycling, technologies. While life support systems can use physical methods alone to purify water and create oxygen from exhaled carbon dioxide, only bioregenerative systems--those involving plants--can also produce food and thereby qualify as completely self-sufficient systems. "The major advantage of a bioregenerative life support system is that it does not need to be resupplied with food, water, and air, nor does it require expendable water or air filtration systems as present-day mechanical spacecraft life support systems do," said Bill Knott, Chief Scientist of Biological Programs at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Bioregenerative systems are ideal because once in place humans hardly need to replenish them. This quality will prove essential to long space flights where tight quarters will limit the supplies a crew can take along. A visit to Mars will take up to three years; the average person uses 22,000 pounds of water and 730 pounds of oxygen in a year. As a result, today’s space shuttle crews’ practices of hauling entire oxygen, water, and food supplies into orbit and bringing wastes back to Earth for disposal will be too costly.
"Numerous studies have shown that as mission duration increases, the cost of supplying all consumables becomes unrealistic, and recycling becomes a necessity," said Barry Finger, a bio-systems engineer at Kennedy. He estimated that the break-even point in NASA’s investment in bioregenerative opposed to purely physical life support would occur after three to seven years of a system’s operation.
The processes by which humans and plants can mutually support each other in a bioregenerative system are simple yet extremely elegant. Plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen to their surroundings. People can breathe oxygen the plants produce and exhale carbon dioxide to sustain the plants. People can eat plants for nutrition, and then recycle inedible leaves, stems, and roots along with human wastes through a resource recovery system. Thus a regenerative life support system can process waste matter into nutrient solution in which new plants can grow. The cycle begins anew.
An agricultural endeavor in space must consider limitations of growing area and gravity. "Bioregenerative life support requires a totally different look at crop production," said Cary Mitchell, director of NASA’s former life support research center at Purdue University. Rather than planting in soil, which would never remain compact in the low gravity conditions of space, NASA proposes growing crops in nutrient-enriched water delivered to plants through plastic hardware--a method called hydroponics. Automated control of the plant production system will free human crews from day-to-day maintenance, allowing them to perform other activities.
ALS crops must rank high in energy, nutritional content, and taste, Mitchell explained. Crews in a bioregenerative life support system will follow primarily vegetarian diets: cereal, legume, and oilseed plants will provide their carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and calories. Purdue food scientists have expanded the menu selection by manipulating nutrient contents of crops to engineer Earth-like foods: they concocted a pasta having the right mix of wheat flour and cowpea meal to create an amino acid balance like that of an animal protein. Someday these vegetarian food products may flood the health food market and improve cuisine in Third World nations.
Designing a life support system for space requires what NASA calls the "systems approach." This strategy attempts to harness chemical cycles occurring naturally on Earth--those of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and mineral elements--into an artificial, closed bioregenerative microcosm. Whether NASA can, for example, get bacteria to convert nitrogen from human wastes into a form plants can absorb as they do on Earth is just one problem researchers must crack before a fully-operational closed life support system makes its way into space.
NASA Center Involvement
Kennedy Space Center is leading the way in the development of biotechnologies that engineers will eventually implement in an operational life support system. In 1986, the space center acquired a 7-meter high, 3.5-meter diameter plant growth chamber which has become the paragon of studies in hydroponic crop production and resource recovery. As a non-human test facility, the complex, known as the Biomass Production Chamber, includes all the hardware needed to monitor plants growing within it. Just outside the chamber is a bioreactor inside of which bacteria recover nutrients from inedible crop material and produce nutrients to sustain new plants.
Researchers have used the growth chamber to pinpoint four crops ideal for closed system growth: wheat, soybean, lettuce, and white potato. In 1995, the team wrapped up a project showing that potatoes could provide enough oxygen and over half the calories an astronaut needs for over a year. "We have demonstrated that a bioregenerative life support system really can support humans in an enclosed environment over a long period of time," plant physiologist Gary Stutte said. Last year Kennedy scientists planted combinations of different crops in the production chamber to study whether different species are compatible in the same environment.
In March, ALS researchers began to add human wash water to one of their smaller plant growth chambers to see how plants would react to a regular diet of the stuff for 84 days. The study will enable scientists to determine how to sustain crop production using recycled water. It is the first step in Kennedy’s plan to eventually recycle all human wastes through its crop production systems.
"As a participant I’m excited about being physically involved with the experiment, but as a researcher I’m interested in the potential application this has for recycling water both on Earth and in space," said Neil Yorio, a plant physiologist at Kennedy. Volunteers in the study are generating wash water by taking showers and laundering their clothes with igepon soap, the cleaning agent designated for use on the International Space Station. Researchers will be checking to see whether the soap’s sodium content presents problems in plants. They will also investigate the ability of human-associated bacteria to survive on plants grown in the wash water in order to assess potential dangers to plants, said microbial ecologist Jay Garland.
Doing basic research on regenerative systems and understanding how to merge them requires researchers to concentrate on not only the biotechnological but also the physicochemical processes that can be assimilated into a bioregenerative life support system. After all, while plants could provide all the human necessities, realistic regenerative complexes will rely on machinery to regulate the system, supply the plants with nutrient solutions, and process wastes. Hardware will also provide a back-up in case the natural system should fail for any reason.
Researchers at Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, are currently investigating the physicochemical techniques that future space travelers might depend on to accomplish necessary mechanical tasks. The research center’s primary focus is water, air, and waste recycling, according to research scientist Harry Jones. Water and air will be the most important resources to recycle as they represent the greatest masses in a regenerative system. Ames is studying ways to regenerate air using a "molecular sieve" technique and purify water by increasing its temperature and pressure in order to decompose any organics in it. Engineers at Ames also are developing a microwave incineration process to produce oxygen from wastes generated in a regenerative system. Jones noted that hospitals have expressed interest in using this technique to dispose of hazardous wastes.
The biological and physicochemical work of Kennedy and Ames is coming together at Johnson Space Center, where scientists and engineers integrate the two technologies into test systems with human subjects for a future ALS complex. The space center’s 1995 human-in-a-wheat-chamber experiment marked the first time a human had entered an active bioregen-erative system since the Soviets tested a closed system with humans and plants in their Bios-3 project in 1977. (As a point of comparison, although one could think of the privately-funded Biosphere 2 project that started in 1991 as a closed system, it differed from regenerative systems in that it did not rely on tightly-controlled environmental systems. Instead, it reacted to widespread ecological changes within the complex’s several artificially-created ecosystems.)
In March, Johnson completed the third of a quartet of studies in a project to test life support systems for future human outposts in space. During this latest test, four "crew members" lived for 60 days in a chamber complete with television, e-mail access, and exercise quarters. Their goal was to recycle all their air and water--including wash water and urine--using physicochemical air and water processors like those NASA will use on the International Space Station. The crew also evaluated medical and food systems for the space station.
During the test, the crew remained in the chamber for the entire 60-day term, fixed equipment problems, and recycled all of the module’s air and water (despite problems with the urine processor during the mission’s second half). "As far as the space station is concerned, they got a lot of good information from the test," said Russ Fortson, a senior engineer at Lockheed Martin who served as a back-up crew member. A test planned for late 1997 will incorporate physicochemical and biological technologies to recycle air and water for four people for 90 days.
In the next decade, Johnson researchers will apply what they have learned in these studies to a five-chamber complex that will involve biological and physicochemical processes to recycle air, water, and most food to sustain a four-person crew for up to 425 days. In addition to realistically demonstrating how a closed life support system works over the long-term, this project--slated for initial testing in 2000--will be a study in human factors and group psychology.
Some of the most fundamental bioregenerative system research gets started at universities where faculty and students apply their creativity to the same kind of problems NASA investigators pursue. NASA has established the NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training (NSCORT) to give one university at a time a five-year, $5-million grant to perform ALS-related research. Aiming to complement rather than duplicate NASA life support research, the NSCORT university investigates bioregenerative technologies that can be refined by NASA centers and private sector contractors to make them "flight-ready."
In 1996 Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, received NASA’s latest university ALS award. "We outlined our proposal after visiting Ames, Kennedy, and Johnson space centers to determine where our expertise could provide the most leverage," said Jim Morris, the New Jersey-NSCORT’s administrator. This center is currently developing a temperature-based model to predict plant flowering dates and determine how to correct plant growth rates if they go off schedule. A "machine vision" system can detect changes in plants induced by temperature changes.
The NJ-NSCORT is also exploring ways to produce breads, pastas, and cereals on a scaled-down size. "My kids play with a Play-doh extruder: they change the die at the end to make different shapes...The same system allows them to make a great variety of foods from a small number of crops," Morris explained. As New Jersey is the most densely populated in the nation, Rutgers researchers are especially interested in improving agricultural and waste management efficiency for life on Earth as well as in space.
ALS concepts are also coming down to Earth via programs such as Cornell’s Controlled Environmental Agriculture. In Controlled Environment Agriculture, plant breeders can select crops that grow best in closed systems and reap the benefits of year-round food production in any climate without worrying about drought or insect invasions. The main difference between a bioregen-erative system and Controlled Environmental Agriculture is that the former’s air system will be closed, while the latter will rely on filtered outside air, said Robert Langhans, a Cornell professor of floriculture and ornamental horticulture.
The Future of ALS
Indeed, NASA’s advanced life support program has proven itself capable of offering myriad benefits to both space and Earth dwellers. The new biotechnology promises improvements in crop growth and food production methods suitable for confined areas. It will show us how to optimize use of precious nutrients and how we can coax microorganisms to turn wastes into useful raw materials for plant growth. With a slogan like "top quality, no pesticides, all-natural, everyday," the private sector can ultimately turn these space-age farming techniques into big business.
ALS can also show people efficient ways to protect the environment. In addition to producing novel crop varieties, bioregenerative technology might help solve landfill problems. Developments in biological waste recycling may find applications in the form of bioremediation programs that will repair environmental damages.
Yet if bioregenerative technology offers so many benefits to everyday life, why aren’t people talking about it yet? NASA’s advanced life support program, like just about all of its life sciences division enterprises, still clings to a very small name. NASA’s shrinking budget mandates that the space agency must set priorities. Right now those priorities amount to funding a new wave of small, non-human planetary missions and constructing the International Space Station. Comparatively speaking, ALS technology is intended to be something of an interior finish for a space base made possible only if we first establish one.
"If the current [funding] level is maintained, I would not expect to see a functional ground-based regenerative system for 10-15 years, or a space-rated system for 15-20 years," Finger said. "If a long-duration manned mission becomes a reality, then I would expect the budget to increase significantly for all aspects of life support research."
In addition to the reality of funding, doubts about the reliability of biological systems remain fixed in many people’s minds. Can a closed system recycle waste material quickly enough to renew vital resources? Will the reduced gravity environment of space affect the biological system in ways we cannot assess on Earth? What back-up life support must lunar or planetary colonies have if a plant-based system should fail? Above all, is the concept truly feasible?
"The challenges of designing a working bioregenerative life support system are gargantuan," Morris admitted. He noted that investigators will need to find ways to make such a system extraordinarily compact and energy-efficient. Physicochemical back-up systems add a slew of weight and energy requirements.
Still, some believe plant-based systems prove extremely resilient. Finger feels certain that a bioregen-erative life support system will be in space within his lifetime: "It isn’t until you begin to work with biological systems that you realize how well ‘engineered’ they really are. When we go back to the moon to stay, and later as we reach out to the stars, ALS will be an integral part of the life support system and a happy reminder to the crew of the life-giving planet they came from."
Others wonder when NASA’s ALS work will eventually pay off in space. "It’s kind of embarrassing to be preparing a regenerative system when we don’t have plans to go anywhere yet," Ames’ Jones said. But even if NASA hasn’t formalized plans to engage in interplanetary travel, is it not possible that the space agency has such a goal somewhat seriously in mind? It’s interesting to note that while NASA’s overall budget drops annually, the space agency has blocked off increasingly larger portions of the pie for life sciences studies for at least the next five years. With all of the recent attention the media has given to Mars and the Jovian moons, perhaps the public will rally around the idea to send human explorers--who will need some form of life support--to these worlds. Indeed, when NASA decides to pursue long-term human flight to the planets, the space agency certainly wants its earthly delegates to go prepared.
When a professor told Amy Snyder, SciTech’s editor in chief, that she was a glutton for punishment this year for taking on such a big responsibility, she laughed in disbelief. She is laughing no more.
Home Hydroponics...and how to do it!, Lem Jones, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1977.
Hydroponic Food Production, 4th ed., Dr. Howard Resh, Santa Barbara, Calif.: Woodbridge Press, 1989.
Hydroponics for the Home Gardener, Stewart Kenyon, Toronto, Ont., Canada: Van Nostrand Reinhold Ltd., 1979.
Mitchell CA. 1994. Bioregenerative life-support systems. Am J Clin Nutr. 60:820S-824
http://www.rso.cornell.edu/scitech/archive/97sum/plants.html
Plant-Based Life Support in Space
Future living? Bioregenerative technology may eventually help sustain humans exploring space.
by Amy Snyder
In March four engineers at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, re-entered civilization after spending 60 days sealed in a three-story, 6-meter diameter chamber. During their stay, the crew recycled just about everything: air, water, and even urine. Nine months before the team's isolation, another quartet spent a month doing the same. Less than a year earlier, a British chemist inhabited a sealed plant growth chamber for 15 days, obtaining all of his oxygen from 30,000 wheat plants that kept him company.
Sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie, right? Even Buck Rogers might be surprised to learn that regenerative life support systems based on combinations of biological and physical processes may be key to sustaining humans on future long-term lunar and planetary missions. Although NASA administrator Dan Goldin has made no solid plans to send people on any lengthy space missions beyond Earth's orbit in the near future, the space agency currently shells out $10 million annually for advanced life support (ALS) research.
ALS aims to provide enough food, water, and oxygen for a crew to operate indefinitely in space with little resupply from Earth using specially-designed regenerative, or recycling, technologies. While life support systems can use physical methods alone to purify water and create oxygen from exhaled carbon dioxide, only bioregenerative systems--those involving plants--can also produce food and thereby qualify as completely self-sufficient systems. "The major advantage of a bioregenerative life support system is that it does not need to be resupplied with food, water, and air, nor does it require expendable water or air filtration systems as present-day mechanical spacecraft life support systems do," said Bill Knott, Chief Scientist of Biological Programs at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Bioregenerative systems are ideal because once in place humans hardly need to replenish them. This quality will prove essential to long space flights where tight quarters will limit the supplies a crew can take along. A visit to Mars will take up to three years; the average person uses 22,000 pounds of water and 730 pounds of oxygen in a year. As a result, today’s space shuttle crews’ practices of hauling entire oxygen, water, and food supplies into orbit and bringing wastes back to Earth for disposal will be too costly.
"Numerous studies have shown that as mission duration increases, the cost of supplying all consumables becomes unrealistic, and recycling becomes a necessity," said Barry Finger, a bio-systems engineer at Kennedy. He estimated that the break-even point in NASA’s investment in bioregenerative opposed to purely physical life support would occur after three to seven years of a system’s operation.
The processes by which humans and plants can mutually support each other in a bioregenerative system are simple yet extremely elegant. Plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen to their surroundings. People can breathe oxygen the plants produce and exhale carbon dioxide to sustain the plants. People can eat plants for nutrition, and then recycle inedible leaves, stems, and roots along with human wastes through a resource recovery system. Thus a regenerative life support system can process waste matter into nutrient solution in which new plants can grow. The cycle begins anew.
An agricultural endeavor in space must consider limitations of growing area and gravity. "Bioregenerative life support requires a totally different look at crop production," said Cary Mitchell, director of NASA’s former life support research center at Purdue University. Rather than planting in soil, which would never remain compact in the low gravity conditions of space, NASA proposes growing crops in nutrient-enriched water delivered to plants through plastic hardware--a method called hydroponics. Automated control of the plant production system will free human crews from day-to-day maintenance, allowing them to perform other activities.
ALS crops must rank high in energy, nutritional content, and taste, Mitchell explained. Crews in a bioregenerative life support system will follow primarily vegetarian diets: cereal, legume, and oilseed plants will provide their carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and calories. Purdue food scientists have expanded the menu selection by manipulating nutrient contents of crops to engineer Earth-like foods: they concocted a pasta having the right mix of wheat flour and cowpea meal to create an amino acid balance like that of an animal protein. Someday these vegetarian food products may flood the health food market and improve cuisine in Third World nations.
Designing a life support system for space requires what NASA calls the "systems approach." This strategy attempts to harness chemical cycles occurring naturally on Earth--those of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and mineral elements--into an artificial, closed bioregenerative microcosm. Whether NASA can, for example, get bacteria to convert nitrogen from human wastes into a form plants can absorb as they do on Earth is just one problem researchers must crack before a fully-operational closed life support system makes its way into space.
NASA Center Involvement
Kennedy Space Center is leading the way in the development of biotechnologies that engineers will eventually implement in an operational life support system. In 1986, the space center acquired a 7-meter high, 3.5-meter diameter plant growth chamber which has become the paragon of studies in hydroponic crop production and resource recovery. As a non-human test facility, the complex, known as the Biomass Production Chamber, includes all the hardware needed to monitor plants growing within it. Just outside the chamber is a bioreactor inside of which bacteria recover nutrients from inedible crop material and produce nutrients to sustain new plants.
Researchers have used the growth chamber to pinpoint four crops ideal for closed system growth: wheat, soybean, lettuce, and white potato. In 1995, the team wrapped up a project showing that potatoes could provide enough oxygen and over half the calories an astronaut needs for over a year. "We have demonstrated that a bioregenerative life support system really can support humans in an enclosed environment over a long period of time," plant physiologist Gary Stutte said. Last year Kennedy scientists planted combinations of different crops in the production chamber to study whether different species are compatible in the same environment.
In March, ALS researchers began to add human wash water to one of their smaller plant growth chambers to see how plants would react to a regular diet of the stuff for 84 days. The study will enable scientists to determine how to sustain crop production using recycled water. It is the first step in Kennedy’s plan to eventually recycle all human wastes through its crop production systems.
"As a participant I’m excited about being physically involved with the experiment, but as a researcher I’m interested in the potential application this has for recycling water both on Earth and in space," said Neil Yorio, a plant physiologist at Kennedy. Volunteers in the study are generating wash water by taking showers and laundering their clothes with igepon soap, the cleaning agent designated for use on the International Space Station. Researchers will be checking to see whether the soap’s sodium content presents problems in plants. They will also investigate the ability of human-associated bacteria to survive on plants grown in the wash water in order to assess potential dangers to plants, said microbial ecologist Jay Garland.
Doing basic research on regenerative systems and understanding how to merge them requires researchers to concentrate on not only the biotechnological but also the physicochemical processes that can be assimilated into a bioregenerative life support system. After all, while plants could provide all the human necessities, realistic regenerative complexes will rely on machinery to regulate the system, supply the plants with nutrient solutions, and process wastes. Hardware will also provide a back-up in case the natural system should fail for any reason.
Researchers at Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, are currently investigating the physicochemical techniques that future space travelers might depend on to accomplish necessary mechanical tasks. The research center’s primary focus is water, air, and waste recycling, according to research scientist Harry Jones. Water and air will be the most important resources to recycle as they represent the greatest masses in a regenerative system. Ames is studying ways to regenerate air using a "molecular sieve" technique and purify water by increasing its temperature and pressure in order to decompose any organics in it. Engineers at Ames also are developing a microwave incineration process to produce oxygen from wastes generated in a regenerative system. Jones noted that hospitals have expressed interest in using this technique to dispose of hazardous wastes.
The biological and physicochemical work of Kennedy and Ames is coming together at Johnson Space Center, where scientists and engineers integrate the two technologies into test systems with human subjects for a future ALS complex. The space center’s 1995 human-in-a-wheat-chamber experiment marked the first time a human had entered an active bioregen-erative system since the Soviets tested a closed system with humans and plants in their Bios-3 project in 1977. (As a point of comparison, although one could think of the privately-funded Biosphere 2 project that started in 1991 as a closed system, it differed from regenerative systems in that it did not rely on tightly-controlled environmental systems. Instead, it reacted to widespread ecological changes within the complex’s several artificially-created ecosystems.)
In March, Johnson completed the third of a quartet of studies in a project to test life support systems for future human outposts in space. During this latest test, four "crew members" lived for 60 days in a chamber complete with television, e-mail access, and exercise quarters. Their goal was to recycle all their air and water--including wash water and urine--using physicochemical air and water processors like those NASA will use on the International Space Station. The crew also evaluated medical and food systems for the space station.
During the test, the crew remained in the chamber for the entire 60-day term, fixed equipment problems, and recycled all of the module’s air and water (despite problems with the urine processor during the mission’s second half). "As far as the space station is concerned, they got a lot of good information from the test," said Russ Fortson, a senior engineer at Lockheed Martin who served as a back-up crew member. A test planned for late 1997 will incorporate physicochemical and biological technologies to recycle air and water for four people for 90 days.
In the next decade, Johnson researchers will apply what they have learned in these studies to a five-chamber complex that will involve biological and physicochemical processes to recycle air, water, and most food to sustain a four-person crew for up to 425 days. In addition to realistically demonstrating how a closed life support system works over the long-term, this project--slated for initial testing in 2000--will be a study in human factors and group psychology.
Some of the most fundamental bioregenerative system research gets started at universities where faculty and students apply their creativity to the same kind of problems NASA investigators pursue. NASA has established the NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training (NSCORT) to give one university at a time a five-year, $5-million grant to perform ALS-related research. Aiming to complement rather than duplicate NASA life support research, the NSCORT university investigates bioregenerative technologies that can be refined by NASA centers and private sector contractors to make them "flight-ready."
In 1996 Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, received NASA’s latest university ALS award. "We outlined our proposal after visiting Ames, Kennedy, and Johnson space centers to determine where our expertise could provide the most leverage," said Jim Morris, the New Jersey-NSCORT’s administrator. This center is currently developing a temperature-based model to predict plant flowering dates and determine how to correct plant growth rates if they go off schedule. A "machine vision" system can detect changes in plants induced by temperature changes.
The NJ-NSCORT is also exploring ways to produce breads, pastas, and cereals on a scaled-down size. "My kids play with a Play-doh extruder: they change the die at the end to make different shapes...The same system allows them to make a great variety of foods from a small number of crops," Morris explained. As New Jersey is the most densely populated in the nation, Rutgers researchers are especially interested in improving agricultural and waste management efficiency for life on Earth as well as in space.
ALS concepts are also coming down to Earth via programs such as Cornell’s Controlled Environmental Agriculture. In Controlled Environment Agriculture, plant breeders can select crops that grow best in closed systems and reap the benefits of year-round food production in any climate without worrying about drought or insect invasions. The main difference between a bioregen-erative system and Controlled Environmental Agriculture is that the former’s air system will be closed, while the latter will rely on filtered outside air, said Robert Langhans, a Cornell professor of floriculture and ornamental horticulture.
The Future of ALS
Indeed, NASA’s advanced life support program has proven itself capable of offering myriad benefits to both space and Earth dwellers. The new biotechnology promises improvements in crop growth and food production methods suitable for confined areas. It will show us how to optimize use of precious nutrients and how we can coax microorganisms to turn wastes into useful raw materials for plant growth. With a slogan like "top quality, no pesticides, all-natural, everyday," the private sector can ultimately turn these space-age farming techniques into big business.
ALS can also show people efficient ways to protect the environment. In addition to producing novel crop varieties, bioregenerative technology might help solve landfill problems. Developments in biological waste recycling may find applications in the form of bioremediation programs that will repair environmental damages.
Yet if bioregenerative technology offers so many benefits to everyday life, why aren’t people talking about it yet? NASA’s advanced life support program, like just about all of its life sciences division enterprises, still clings to a very small name. NASA’s shrinking budget mandates that the space agency must set priorities. Right now those priorities amount to funding a new wave of small, non-human planetary missions and constructing the International Space Station. Comparatively speaking, ALS technology is intended to be something of an interior finish for a space base made possible only if we first establish one.
"If the current [funding] level is maintained, I would not expect to see a functional ground-based regenerative system for 10-15 years, or a space-rated system for 15-20 years," Finger said. "If a long-duration manned mission becomes a reality, then I would expect the budget to increase significantly for all aspects of life support research."
In addition to the reality of funding, doubts about the reliability of biological systems remain fixed in many people’s minds. Can a closed system recycle waste material quickly enough to renew vital resources? Will the reduced gravity environment of space affect the biological system in ways we cannot assess on Earth? What back-up life support must lunar or planetary colonies have if a plant-based system should fail? Above all, is the concept truly feasible?
"The challenges of designing a working bioregenerative life support system are gargantuan," Morris admitted. He noted that investigators will need to find ways to make such a system extraordinarily compact and energy-efficient. Physicochemical back-up systems add a slew of weight and energy requirements.
Still, some believe plant-based systems prove extremely resilient. Finger feels certain that a bioregen-erative life support system will be in space within his lifetime: "It isn’t until you begin to work with biological systems that you realize how well ‘engineered’ they really are. When we go back to the moon to stay, and later as we reach out to the stars, ALS will be an integral part of the life support system and a happy reminder to the crew of the life-giving planet they came from."
Others wonder when NASA’s ALS work will eventually pay off in space. "It’s kind of embarrassing to be preparing a regenerative system when we don’t have plans to go anywhere yet," Ames’ Jones said. But even if NASA hasn’t formalized plans to engage in interplanetary travel, is it not possible that the space agency has such a goal somewhat seriously in mind? It’s interesting to note that while NASA’s overall budget drops annually, the space agency has blocked off increasingly larger portions of the pie for life sciences studies for at least the next five years. With all of the recent attention the media has given to Mars and the Jovian moons, perhaps the public will rally around the idea to send human explorers--who will need some form of life support--to these worlds. Indeed, when NASA decides to pursue long-term human flight to the planets, the space agency certainly wants its earthly delegates to go prepared.
When a professor told Amy Snyder, SciTech’s editor in chief, that she was a glutton for punishment this year for taking on such a big responsibility, she laughed in disbelief. She is laughing no more.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-11 06:32 am (UTC)Happy Birthday!
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-11 08:37 am (UTC)