SpaceX Dragon and VEGGIEs ie Whirled Peas

[Retired Downrange]

It's not world peace....

but

even Astronauts should eat VEGGIEs...
(especially if delivered by Dragon)
------------------

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/veggie.html

Station Investigation to Test Fresh Food

With all the prepackaged gardening kits on the market, an exceptionally green thumb isn't necessary to grow your own tasty fresh vegetables here on Earth. The same may hold true for U.S. astronauts living and working aboard the International Space Station when they receive a newly developed Vegetable Production System, called VEGGIE for short, set to launch aboard SpaceX's Dragon capsule on NASA's third Commercial Resupply Services mission next year.

"Our hope is that even though VEGGIE is not a highly complex plant growth apparatus, it will allow the crew to rapidly grow vegetables using a fairly simple nutrient and water delivery approach," said Howard Levine, Ph.D. and chief scientist, NASA's Kennedy Space Center International Space Station Research Office.

Gioia Massa, a postdoctoral fellow in the Surface Systems Group of Kennedy's Engineering Directorate, has been working with the International Space Station Research Office to validate the VEGGIE hardware here on Earth before it takes flight next year.

"VEGGIE could be used to produce faster-growing species of plants, such as lettuce or radishes, bok choy or Chinese cabbage, or even bitter leafy greens" Massa said. "Crops like tomatoes, peas or beans in which you'd have to have a flower and set fruit would take a little longer than a 28-day cycle."

It may not sound like a big deal to us Earthlings who can just run out to our local produce stand or supermarket when we have a hankering for a salad, but when you're living 200 miles above the surface of the planet, truly fresh food only comes a few times a year.

"When the resupply ships get up there, the fresh produce gets eaten almost immediately," Massa said.

Weighing in at about 15 pounds and taking up the space of a stove-top microwave oven, the stowable and deployable VEGGIE system was built by Orbital Technologies Corporation, or ORBITEC, in Madison, Wis. The company designed the system to enable low-maintenance experiments, giving astronauts the opportunity to garden recreationally.

"Based upon anecdotal evidence, crews report that having plants around was very comforting and helped them feel less out of touch with Earth," Massa said. "You could also think of plants as pets. The crew just likes to nurture them."

In simple terms, the VEGGIE system works like this: Clear Teflon bellows that can be adjusted for plants as they grow are attached to a metal frame housing the system's power and light switches. A rooting pillow made of Teflon-coated Kevlar and Nomex will contain the planting media, such as soil or claylike particles, along with fertilizer pellets. Seeds either will be preloaded in the pillows on Earth or inserted by astronauts in space. To water the plants, crew members will use a reservoir located beneath the pillows and a root mat to effectively add moisture through an automatic wicking process.

VEGGIE is set to join other plant growth facilities that vary in size and complexity, such as the Lada greenhouse unit and the ABRS, short for Advanced Biological Research System. VEGGIE is the simplest of the three designs, but has the largest surface area for planting and is expected to produce data on a more regular basis. Levine noted that the ability to grow plants in microgravity has really evolved throughout the past decade.

"What's interesting is that plants breathe, just like humans," Levine said. "Initially, biologists tried to grow plants in sealed compartments but that didn't work because without continuous airflow bringing carbon dioxide and oxygen to plants for respiration, they won't thrive."

An added benefit of the VEGGIE system is that it requires only about 115 watts to operate, less than half the energy it takes to power a desktop computer and monitor. The blue, red and green light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, are bright enough for crops to grow, but energy efficient enough for a place where power is at a premium.

"We really only need the red and the blue LEDs for good photosynthesis, but we have the option of turning the green LEDs on, which will make the overall light look white, making the plants look green rather than purple," Massa said.

Once the facility reaches the station, astronauts will unpack it and install it into one of the station's EXPRESS racks. Then, they'll report back to Kennedy's International Space Station Research Office about the setup and work that goes into planting, maintaining and harvesting the crops, as well as the effort that goes into pillow disposal and sanitation.

Mary Hummerick, a microbiologist at Kennedy, will be awaiting swab samples and frozen plant tissues to return from space so she can analyze them for bacteria and microorganisms that could adversely affect the crew. If those numbers are acceptable, NASA could give the go-ahead for crews to start eating what they grow.

NASA is looking into other ways to use the VEGGIE facility once its operation is validated on the first flight to the station.

"You could have bio-behavioral studies on the effect of growing edible plants compared to ornamental plants with flowers, nutritional studies, psychological studies, or you could grow herbs like mint and basil," Massa said.

The agency recently released a NASA Research Announcement asking for those types of proposals from peer-reviewed researchers to join in with their own VEGGIE experiments. Prospective researchers also will have to detail their plans for involving students in K-12 classrooms and how their experiments would help teach kids about science, technology, math and engineering, or STEM.

"There's definitely an outreach component to VEGGIE and we're looking at reaching the up-and-coming generation with STEM activities," said Levine. "We're leaving it up to the researchers to propose how to engage and enthuse a significant number of students with their experiments."

While a successful run of VEGGIE would open innumerable possibilities for future experiments, the near-term goal will be seeing whether the hardware performs as expected on the station come next year.

 
 
Rebecca Regan
NASA's Kennedy Space Center
 

[Prober]

Massa said. "You could also think of plants as pets. The crew just likes to nurture them."

shocked  pets?

[Retired Downrange]

I wonder what a cat would be like in micro-gravity...

[Halidon]

I'm outraged my tax dollars are being spent on this. We should be installing a cattle module and training the Astronauts in slaughtering and butchering 

[pathfinder_01]

I'm outraged my tax dollars are being spent on this. We should be installing a cattle module and training the Astronauts in slaughtering and butchering 

LOL.... Fava beans anyone??

[dcporter]

Jim is wrong, SpaceX is enabling whirled peas.

[baldusi]

Did I understood it right? They will install it, grow plants and send the first samples back on the same Dragon that will bring it up? Or will they use the next one?
The other important point is that this is one of those things that might get fundamental for BEO. Imagine if they can get a positive O2 flow, recycle the water and use process and reuse the rest of the plant as compost. This might allow some sort of (inefficient) closed loop ECLSS. And if they only ship the seeds, there's a good chance the will not have to worry about insects, worms or any of those problems.

[Comga]

Jim is wrong, SpaceX is enabling whirled peas.

This is the first "Jim is wrong." post that we can all appreciate.
Thank you dcporter!

[pathfinder_01]

Did I understood it right? They will install it, grow plants and send the first samples back on the same Dragon that will bring it up? Or will they use the next one?

Probably not enough time to do that.  The plants do need time to grow.

The other important point is that this is one of those things that might get fundamental for BEO. Imagine if they can get a positive O2 flow, recycle the water and use process and reuse the rest of the plant as compost. This might allow some sort of (inefficient) closed loop ECLSS. And if they only ship the seeds, there's a good chance the will not have to worry about insects, worms or any of those problems.

I doubt they will get enough oxygen from it to make a huge difference in BEO flight but it can make a difference in terms of food. Seeds take up much less volume than a pre-packed food item. If you could get recyling you would reduce the amount of food that needs to be sent a bit but that is a more advanced process.

[baldusi]

Did I understood it right? They will install it, grow plants and send the first samples back on the same Dragon that will bring it up? Or will they use the next one?

Probably not enough time to do that.  The plants do need time to grow.

The other important point is that this is one of those things that might get fundamental for BEO. Imagine if they can get a positive O2 flow, recycle the water and use process and reuse the rest of the plant as compost. This might allow some sort of (inefficient) closed loop ECLSS. And if they only ship the seeds, there's a good chance the will not have to worry about insects, worms or any of those problems.

I doubt they will get enough oxygen from it to make a huge difference in BEO flight but it can make a difference in terms of food. Seeds take up much less volume than a pre-packed food item. If you could get recyling you would reduce the amount of food that needs to be sent a bit but that is a more advanced process.

How much oxygen exchange per biomass is "normal"? To get an idea. When I mean BEO I also thought of the Gateway. And may be even a moon base. But the general issue is that this is the good direction. I seriously doubt that this system will make much difference. But I'm pretty sure if they keep getting data and making new systems, eventually, they'll get to a point where it will help a lot in the mass needs. I mean, most think of a closed loop ECLSS only on the air and water. If you can get a bit of reuse also on food, you lower the requirements more.

[Retired Downrange]

Jim is wrong, SpaceX is enabling whirled peas.

Thank you for giving peas a chance...

and I figured out how to add Whirled Peas to the title.

[Dappa]

And if they only ship the seeds, there's a good chance the will not have to worry about insects, worms or any of those problems.

I'd like to remind you of Don Pettit's plants, some algae spores hitched a ride on the seeds: http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/letters/posts/post_1339686578506.html

While insects and worms wouldn't cause any problems because they're relatively large, fungi and bacteria are probably a lot harder to separate from the seeds.

(also, the fact that Dragon delivers this payload is secondary, and I think this thread belongs in the ISS section)

[krytek]

Consider that 80-90% of plant mass is water, and 95% of the rest is made from CO2. There's potential here.

P.S
Don Petit is awesome.

[pathfinder_01]

How much oxygen exchange per biomass is "normal"? To get an idea. When I mean BEO I also thought of the Gateway. And may be even a moon base. But the general issue is that this is the good direction. I seriously doubt that this system will make much difference. But I'm pretty sure if they keep getting data and making new systems, eventually, they'll get to a point where it will help a lot in the mass needs. I mean, most think of a closed loop ECLSS only on the air and water. If you can get a bit of reuse also on food, you lower the requirements more.

That I don't know. However NASA has done some experiments on the ground with ElCSS done by plants. That being said oxygen exchange isn't the right word here.

Oxygen is a waste product of Photosynthesis. C02 is a required substance for sugar production.

Basically plants take light and use that energy to break water into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen is released (Hydrogen becomes a part of another molecule used in to store the energy).

They then take the chemical energy from that reaction to generate sugars from CO2 (cellulose is a major part of land plants and is a sugar. However we can not digest it). They also use that energy to generate amino acids from fixed nitrogen(they can’t use what is in the air but some bacteria can fix nitrogen from the air or other sources(i.e. waste)  into forms the plants can use(i.e. the fertilizer in the kit contains fixed forms of nitrogen). 

Like any aerobic organism plants also require oxygen to burn sugar(and other subtaces) to produce energy. It is just that plants produce more oxygen than they take in and remove CO2 from the air.

The major problem with using plants for life support is they have very specific needs (light, soil PH, temperature) and if the plants die there goes your oxygen generation and carbon dioxide scrubbing(See biosphere 2 for biological ECLSS gone wrong). Mechanical systems are much simpler (if not quite as efficient).

Where they are great is in food production. Seeds take up very little volume(think a kernel of corn vs. an ear of corn) and the plants themselves can generate seeds(i.e. Send one packet of Tomato seeds and you wont need to send tomato seeds again…just fertilizer(or if you can, you could generate fertilizer via ISRU).

Sending a few packs of seeds, esp. items that are hard to ship to the ISS(like say leatuce and Straw Berries) could really make for an improvement in space diets.  In terms of BEO if you can grow your own food, you free up cargo space for other items. Basically the ability to feed the crew several meals with something that could fit in a shoe box.

Anyway barring things like ISRU and the amount of packaging food needs, plants won't change the mass needed for the mission. Seeds just put said mass in a much more compact form.  C02 gets recyled into more food but that is about it.  They do however change the amount of mass needed for resupply(i.e. The recyling).

[baldusi]

Anyway barring things like ISRU and the amount of packaging food needs, plants won't change the mass needed for the mission. Seeds just put said mass in a much more compact form.  C02 gets recyled into more food but that is about it.  They do however change the amount of mass needed for resupply(i.e. The recyling).

I know current system doesn't. But I assumed that you'd process human waste and the non eatable parts of plants into "compost". That would allow a semi-closed cycle on food. Which would help on mass.
I probably see this more as an option with mycoprotein, yeast and/or algae. Normal plants have lot's of requirements of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and such. But fungus, yeast and algae ere less picky.
Additionally, I don't know what the effect of continuous lightning on the plants health. I assume they would have a constant oxygen surplus.
Also, I think the best application would be on a gateway or cycler, either Earth-Moon, or Earth-Mars.