Food Production for Space Exploration: Essentials and Challenges Gioia Massa Project Scientist NASA, Kennedy Space Center

Space Food Production: The Essentials Goal: To produce safe, nutritious, appealing food to supplement a stored diet As mission duration increases, a greater percentage of the diet might be produced Key Factors: Production in controlled environments Any solar light reduced and indirect High CO2 levels likely (ISS ≥3000 ppm) Common environments for multiple crops Crop scheduling is critical Power, mass, volume, and crew time must be minimized Sustainability - minimizing waste, nutrient recycling Biotic stresses - carried from Earth, mutation Abiotic stresses - related to micro or fractional gravity Opportunities: Designer plants for space growth and nutrition Automation In Situ Resource Utilization (Regolith, CO2, water)

Technology and Knowledge Gap Focus: The Challenges Identify and demonstrate effective options to provide both water and oxygen to the root zone in microgravity and surface systems Investigate benefits of both passive and active systems Understand the deep space radiation impacts on seeds and plants Investigate the relationship between microbiomes and food safety Effectively sanitize produce with few consumables and low inputs Control biotic stresses and pathogens Use the microbiome to protect crops or enhance growth Identify potential crops Yield, nutrition, organoleptic attributes, psychosocial benefits Light recipes, elevated CO2 impacts, fertilizer requirements Custom space crops Automation and human factors Identify operations and capabilities that require automation Understand which crew activities are desirable and at what scale Storage and handling of seeds to ensure they are viable, free of contaminants and long-lived Scalability for different concepts and architectures