Speaker
Description
During future long-term space missions, the employment of living organisms, like plants, microorganisms, and, more rarely, animals, will be necessary for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), air regeneration, water purification, and food production. These bioregenerative functions need to be integrated in an artificial closed environment to guarantee self-sufficiency and sustainability for human space exploration long-term missions.
Plants are fundamental components of bioregenerative life support systems (BLSS). An efficient and impactful use of plants for long-term space mission must, however, deal with the complexity of the plant response to the space stressors and the development of enabling technologies for the growth of plants in closed environment. Still, plants have great potential to positively impact human health and wellbeing during long term space missions. Fresh plant food, rich in fibres, vitamins, and antioxidants, but also flavoursome and with an interesting texture, can represent a countermeasure for the negative psychophysiological effects associated with long-term space missions.
Through the organization of dedicated working groups, workshops, and call for ideas, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) has been tackling plant production for human space exploration applications. From hardware and software technology development to the study of plant response pathways to space-associated stressors, from soilless technologies to paedogenesis, from the development of new cultivars to food production, ASI has been nurturing the national community to contribute to the international efforts towards communal human exploration goals. Here, an overview of the activities coordinated by ASI in space plant research will be given, with the intent to highlight the ASI strategy in this field.