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

2. 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)

3. 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