Growing plants in space (yes, yes, you read that right: in space) is becoming more credible and possible every day than we can imagine. In the race that has been unleashed to establish the first permanent bases for human beings on the Moon and then make the great leap to Mars, bringing agriculture to these new frontiers is the dream pursued by different space agencies (such as NASA), groups research and companies that are dedicating themselves to it. There are already designs of what the first greenhouses that these lunar missions will have will be like and even very small-scale prototypes. They will have to feed fresh products to the crew of future long-duration space flights, to human colonies that are established in these settlements, and also to tourists who travel to space stations. Because supplying food from Earth with the necessary frequency is very expensive, no matter how much cheaper the launch costs are, such as the forecasts. A Citigroup study estimates that currently The launch cost is $1,500 per kilogram. The authors believe that these prices could fall to $100/kg in 2040, even to $33/kg. But it would still be too ruinous to take hundreds of thousands of kilos and kilos of fresh produce into space.
So the idea is to feed crews, colonists or space travelers with the resources available in situ. We will even have to resort to the lunar surface where there is a lack of nitrogen, which is the key for plants to develop. And to the soil of Mars, where the salts will have to be removed before starting a crop.
Projects
With this objective, different initiatives are developed throughout the planet. Like the tiny adaptive greenhouse from the Italian company Space V or the bioagriculture platforms from the French company Interstellar Lab. The latter even won the grand prize of $750,000 in the NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge. The challenge proposed by the American agency was to seek innovations to feed astronauts on long-duration space missions.
Outside the planet, work is also being done on trials to grow food, such as the Seedling Growth project, the first in a series of experiments that NASA and the ESA (European Space Agency) will develop on the International Space Station (ISS). In this first time seeds of the Arabidopsis Thaliana plant (from the brassicaceae family, to which cauliflower and mustard also belong), under different conditions of gravity and light, until they became small plants. Scientists from the Margarita Salas Biological Research Center in Madrid participated in these tests.
A greenhouse module has also been installed on the ISS with seeds that have been sown on sterile pads. Different species of lettuce, bok choy, mustard and kale germinated there.
The big leap was made by China in 2019. The Chan’E-4 ‘lander’ landed on the far side of the Moon carrying a mini cylindrical biosphere. A cotton seed germinated inside it, but it did not survive the first lunar night. The sudden change in temperature (up to -150ºC) killed the plant.
In that race to develop the first space greenhouses there is a Spanish project: Green Moon Project (Green Moon). Scientists from the University of the Basque Country, the INTA-CSIC Astrobiology Center and two companies participate: the biotechnology company Innoplant and the fertilizer company Herogra Group. And the Cabildo of Lanzarote and La Palma collaborate. The project was selected among the 25 finalists for the Google Lunar X Prize, where 3,400 proposals were submitted.
Made in Spain
«We want to feed astronauts and space tourists with crops that will produce fruits and vegetables and that will provide nutrients and vitamins. We will also be able to support life support systems that will be in future settlements, since plants generate oxygen and eliminate carbon dioxide. Furthermore, plants help psychologically because they make us feel in our nature,” says José María Ortega Hernández, founder of Green Moon.
Well, this team has already developed a small greenhouse prototype in which to carry out tests. «It is a capsule of 500 cubic centimeters and 1,700 kilos. We are testing different gas, temperature, humidity, pressure, radiation sensors… to study how seeds germinate and grow in microgravity. We have an irrigation system and LED lights that simulate solar luminosity. We hope to protect ourselves from radiation with a shield around the capsule, which will be isolated from the outside to avoid low pressures and temperatures,” describes Jorge Pla García, technological coordinator of Green Moon and Planetary Sciences researcher at the INTA Astrobiology Center. CSIC.
Among its advantages, this system is modular and adapts to different environments and missions. “It can be installed inside an orbiting satellite, or on the lunar soil or outside commercial space stations, which is one of the market niches that we would like to cover,” says Pla.
The capsule is covered with solar panels “that provide energy to heat the interior to a constant temperature between 15 and 28ºC. The capsule is pressurized. Aluminum and titanium are good materials to withstand harsh conditions, but the most important thing is to keep the pressure inside as close to that on Earth as possible for plants to grow,” explains Pla.
Green Moon Project Prototype Model
A hostile environment
That is the engineering part, but the project also includes geological and biological research. Our satellite presents a very hostile environment for life to grow. «The Moon has no atmosphere, there is no weathering (rain, wind, ice) that degrades the soil, therefore the minerals and all the components of the soil remain unchanged, and it has no organic matter. Furthermore, there is no gravity and there is no protection from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation that directly affects the lunar surface,” says Fernando Alberquilla, coordinator of Planetary Geology at Green Moon and geologist from the IBeA research group (Analytical Research and Innovation) of the University of the Basque Country.
Under these conditions it is very difficult for anything to grow. So Green Moon has come up with a solution: they have found a substrate similar to lunar regolith, which once treated and modified, allows plants to take root and develop. This substrate has been made from the volcanic rocks of Lanzarote. And they are also going to do it with the lava that has been expelled by the Tajogaite volcano on La Palma. «There are volcanic areas of the Earth that are equal to the lunar surface. We look for the ones that are most similar. We are interested in young lavas, like those of Tajogaite, which continue to maintain their most primitive state because it is the closest thing to what is on the surface of the Moon. Furthermore, the degradation of these minerals allows us to extract oxygen to breathe,” says Alberquilla.
Substrate that imitates lunar regolith
Fertilizers
And this is where the Granada company Innoplant intervenes, which in its laboratories has managed to germinate different types of small plants in the substrate, imitating the lunar regolith. «The cotyledons emerge and the plants want nutrients, they need food. But they do not find it in the regolith and they die after four days,” explains Eva Sánchez, managing director of Innoplant.
So, as happens on Earth, Green Moon is looking for a fertilizer that gives those nutrients to the plants. And it is in the hands of the Herogra Group company. «They have a collection of Extremophilic microorganisms, which are bacteria that live in extreme conditions. “They have been isolated from Riotinto Mines, volcanic soils…”, indicates Sánchez.
Innoplant has selected three candidate bacteria, “which we have introduced into a concentration of regolith and survive three days later. In 2025 we will introduce seeds into that regolith to see if the bacteria regenerate that substrate and we will be able to produce nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, that plants need. We will need a source of organic matter that, together with the bacteria, gives rise to soil to feed them. An organic source could be organic waste from the space station, urine… We will thus have a biofertilizer,” adds Sáchez. Once they try all these tests, the challenge will be zero gravity. “And it is not known how a plant is going to develop with microgravity,” says Sánchez.
In orbit in two years
For this, Green Moon has teamed up with the Madrid startup Orbital Paradigm. “Our prototype will travel aboard a pressurized capsule developed by Orbital in 2026. It is specifically designed for experimentation in weightlessness and cargo recovery after the mission,” says José María Ortega. For 14 days the small greenhouse will be orbiting in space. «It will be monitored and we will receive data in real time. “We are going to check what growth is like in weightlessness and, once the load is returned, we will see what has happened to the plant,” says Ortega.
Green Moon has focused on small plants that can travel in capsules, have short germination and life cycles, provide nutrients and can be eaten raw. “Radish is one of the plants that is giving the best results,” Sánchez proposes. Tomatoes, varieties of lettuce, spinach and strawberries are on the list.
What was proposed as a scientific project also has a future to be commercialized, as is Ortega’s idea. “When the first Artemis missions arrive to the Moon – he says – or space tourism, we want to have a project tested for years and we will be able to support these space projects,” Ortega predicts. This is how this ‘made in Spain’ innovation takes off to fulfill the dream of lunar agriculture.
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