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01/03/2005
Greenhouses on Mars
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Future manned missions to Mars will require the development of autonomous systems sustaining human life without the need for re-supplies.
For instance, it is envisaged that greenhouses will provide fresh vegetable produce, oxygen and psychological benefits for isolated crews. |
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The European Space Agency (ESA) has concluded a feasibility study on Closed Food Production Systems, led by NTE and featuring key specialist partners such as TNO (NL), Verhaert (B) and Ghent University (B).
The study goal was to design a Food Production Unit (FPU) that could operate in Low Earth Orbit (e.g. attached to the International Space Station, ISS), in transit to Mars and on the Mars surface.
The activity has identified vegetal species attending to their nutritional criteria, it has designed all necessary subsystems to grow them in micro-gravity or reduced-gravity conditions and has developed integrated models and run simulations on them.
The study concludes that the FPU should be sized as a typical ISS module and it would represent an optimal test-bed for plant cultivation in Space. |
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