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Completed TRL 5 (started at 4, targeting 5)
Regenerative space life support will undoubtedly require food production, to recover nutrients and close the carbon loop in a spacecraft habitat. µG-LilyPond™ is an autonomous, thin film hydroponic vertical farm that produces a variety of safe and enjoyable food crops at reduced cost for infrastructure, power, consumables (like water), and crew time, in any space environment (across gravity regimes). Compared with state-of-the-art space crop production systems, the µG-LilyPond™ growth bed passively regulates water provision to plant roots according to plant demand, improving the reliability of water and nutrient delivery and root zone aeration in microgravity. The growth bed is the first space technology to provide a stable liquid-air interface for aquatic floating plant growth, enabling production of nutritiously dense water lentils, a novel space crop, in microgravity. The growth bed form factor also facilitates microgreen production, which is challenging for existing plant growth facilities. Autonomous watering, environmental control, and cleaning functions reduce crew time needed for operation, while preventing pathogen growth. Pathogen blocking technology in the growth bed further improves the safety of biomass produced. Finally, shallow stacked growth beds, highly uniform close canopy LED lighting panels, water recycling and reconditioning (i.e., recirculating hydroponics), and re-usable substrate for rooted plants provide significant equivalent system mass savings (volume, power, and mass) per kilogram of biomass produced. As an extension of Phase II EDU development (in Phase IIE), Space Lab proposes to test the µG-LilyPond™ growth bed and water lentil harvesting technology in a relevant microgravity environment, on a suborbital technology demonstration flight. The goal of this flight test is to raise the growth bed and harvester components to TRL 5.
μG-LilyPond™ will provide supplemental fresh food for spacecraft habitats, at reduced cost for infrastructure, power, consumables, and crew time. The growth chamber and its modular technologies have the potential for infusion into NASA programs as a space agriculture or gravitational biology research facility or a bioregenerative food system. Potential programs include the SMD Biological and Physical Sciences Division; the HEOMD Human Research, ISS, and Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) programs; or the STMD Game Changing Development program.
Bioregenerative food production for commercial space habitats Space agriculture/plant science research facility for commercial space habitats Payload heat exchanger for commercial space habitats Spectrally tunable, power efficient close canopy lighting for controlled environment agriculture research and indoor farming Water lentil aquaculture research facility
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