AbstractA Manned Mars Mission scenario had been developed in frame of the Project 1172 supported International Science & Technology Center in Moscow. The Mars transit vehicle (MTV) supposed to have a crew of 4–6 with Pilot Laboratory compartment volume of 185m3 and with inner diameter of 4.1m. A vegetable production facility with power consumption up to 10kW is being considered as a component of the life support system to supply crew members by fresh vegetables during the mission. Proposed design of conveyor-type plant growth facility (PGF) comprised of 4-modules. Each module has a cylindrical planting surface and spiral cylindrical LED assembly to provide a high specific productivity relative to utilized onboard resources. Each module has a growth chamber that will be from 0.7m to 1.5m in length, and a crop illuminated area from 1.7m2 to 4.0m2. Leafy crops (cabbage, lettuce, spinach, chard, etc.) have been selected for module 1, primarily because of the highest specific productivity per consumed resources. Dietitians have recommended also carrot crop for module 2, pepper for module 3 and tomato for module 4. The maximal total PGF light energy estimated as 1.16kW and total power consumption as about 7kW. The module 1 characteristics have been calculated using own experimental data, information from the best on ground plant growth experiments with artificial light were used to predict crop productivity and biomass composition in the another modules. 4-module PGF could produce nearly 0.32kg per crew member per day of fresh edible biomass, which would be about 50% of recommended daily vegetable supplement. An average crop harvest index is estimated as 0.75. The MTV food system could be entirely closed in terms of vitamins C and A with help of the PGF. In addition the system could provide 10–25% of essential minerals and vitamins of group B, and about 20% of food fibers. The present state of plant growth technology allows formulating of requirements specification for the flight-qualified modules.


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    Title :

    Vegetable production facility as a part of a closed life support system in a Russian Martian space flight scenario


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Advances in Space Research ; 44 , 2 ; 170-176


    Publication date :

    2009-03-03


    Size :

    7 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English