OrbHab Paper
Growing Plants from SEEDS on Mars for Supporting Human Exploration (2019)
ID: 133 Flag Paper
Title: Growing Plants from SEEDS on Mars for Supporting Human Exploration
Authors: Marco Volponi, Jacopo Pisacreta, Cesare Lobascio
Journal Name: 46th International Conference on Environmental Systems
Year of Publication: 2019
Page Number: 0
Category: biosphere
Availability: pdf
Detail Page: /papers/133
Web Link: https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/bitstream/handle/2346/67575/ICES_2016_173.pdf
BoK Link: [[paper:133]]
Abstract
The paper presents the results of a study performed during the Project Work Activity by students of the 7th edition of the International Master Course in SpacE Exploration and Development Systems (SEEDS), born from a collaboration of Politecnico di Torino (Italy), Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et l’Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO, Toulouse) in France and University of Leicester in United Kingdom (UK), with the partnership of European Space Agency (ESA) and Industries. The study focused on the design of a Martian permanent human outpost and, among all the building blocks identified and designed, a Greenhouse (GH) module has been conceived, which objective was to be a plant growth facility to be integrated into a bio-regenerative life support system. Several trade-offs have been performed in order to evaluate possible design architectures, taking into account the cultivation methods, the selection of the crops and the diet composition. Growth substrate (soil and soil-less cultures), lighting, pressure, temperature, atmosphere composition, waste treatment and robotic assistance have been subject of study, adopting environmental safety, robustness, maintenance easiness and effectiveness as figures of merit; different options of diet/crop combinations have been evaluated, progressively reducing the crops and the cultivated surface, in order to minimize the system needed and considering food integrations, via resupply, brought from Earth. The last part of this study consisted in determining not only mass and power consumption of the module, but also to arrive to the module design concept and its integration into the overall outpost architecture; in doing so, the importance of the crew psychological health and of the possibility of using the GH as an initial test bed for further expansion was taken into consideration.
Title: Growing Plants from SEEDS on Mars for Supporting Human Exploration
Authors: Marco Volponi, Jacopo Pisacreta, Cesare Lobascio
Journal Name: 46th International Conference on Environmental Systems
Year of Publication: 2019
Page Number: 0
Category: biosphere
Availability: pdf
Detail Page: /papers/133
Web Link: https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/bitstream/handle/2346/67575/ICES_2016_173.pdf
BoK Link: [[paper:133]]
Abstract
The paper presents the results of a study performed during the Project Work Activity by students of the 7th edition of the International Master Course in SpacE Exploration and Development Systems (SEEDS), born from a collaboration of Politecnico di Torino (Italy), Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et l’Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO, Toulouse) in France and University of Leicester in United Kingdom (UK), with the partnership of European Space Agency (ESA) and Industries. The study focused on the design of a Martian permanent human outpost and, among all the building blocks identified and designed, a Greenhouse (GH) module has been conceived, which objective was to be a plant growth facility to be integrated into a bio-regenerative life support system. Several trade-offs have been performed in order to evaluate possible design architectures, taking into account the cultivation methods, the selection of the crops and the diet composition. Growth substrate (soil and soil-less cultures), lighting, pressure, temperature, atmosphere composition, waste treatment and robotic assistance have been subject of study, adopting environmental safety, robustness, maintenance easiness and effectiveness as figures of merit; different options of diet/crop combinations have been evaluated, progressively reducing the crops and the cultivated surface, in order to minimize the system needed and considering food integrations, via resupply, brought from Earth. The last part of this study consisted in determining not only mass and power consumption of the module, but also to arrive to the module design concept and its integration into the overall outpost architecture; in doing so, the importance of the crew psychological health and of the possibility of using the GH as an initial test bed for further expansion was taken into consideration.