Controlled Environment Systems for Advanced Life SupportTheresa Rondeau Vuk*, Michael Dixon*, Richard Worsfold**,

*Space and Advanced Life Support Agriculture, Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph**Centre for Research in Earth and Space Technology (CRESTech)

The Rationale for Advanced Life Support (ALS)

The next major international effort in space, after the International Space Station, is the exploration of Mars or the Moon. Such

long term planetary exploration missions must include plants as part of an ALS since mass of re-supply is a constraint.There is a high level of technology developed by the Canadian greenhouse industry to combat the environmental challenges of

food production in Canadian winters. This is a logical technical back-drop to begin facing the challenges in space exploration and environment control.

Higher plants provide many of the functions for human life support in closed systems including:

! Edible biomass as a vegetarian diet! The fixation of CO originating from human, plant and microbial respiration,2

! The evolution of O ,2

! The transpiration of fresh H O2

Facility Description - Present and Future

The CES Research Facility has capabilities to address the program objectives as stated above. Currently the facility consists of;

2! A newly constructed research venue (1,000 , including analytical chemistry, microbiology, , and electronics

2labs plus two prototype testing areas (300 ),! One prototype hypobaric plant growth chamber (1 x 1.5 x 1.8m) capable of variable pressure (currently under test),! Two 3 x 4 x 2 m sealed environment chambers for assessing full plant canopy performance,! A total of 13 sealed chambers for the assessment of individual plant or sub-canopy carbon gain responses to various

treatments,! A large greenhouse infra-structure designed to support studies in controlled environment production of crops, namely in the

areas of hydroponics and disease management,! An array of analytical equipment including HPLC-MS, GCMS for solution composition analyses,! A prototype modular biofilter for the investigation of higher plant roles in air purification.

Within the next 12 months the infrastructure will grow to include:! 4 additional large scale plus 9 smaller hypobaric pressure chambers (0.5m diam. x 1.5m high), ! Additional analytical and supporting hardware .

m foliar analysism

and gas

equipment, sensors

Program Activities:

Our research objectives attempt to define environment control algorithms for plant canopies in closed environments. Our objectives include:

! The assessment of artificial light types and configurations for dense plant canopies,! The analysis and control of primary gas exchange (CO2 and O2) and edible biomass gain,! Detection and management of trace contaminants (eg. ethylene, allelochemicals) in aerial and root environments,! Degradation of volatile organic compounds associated with poor indoor air quality,! Control of plant pathogens and disease in root environments,! Breeding and selection of plants and microbes for specific roles in controlled environments,! The development of hydroponic solution remediation techniques and specific sensor technologies for the maintenance of

optimal nutrient concentrations.

Sponsors:! European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Centre for Research in Earth and Space Technology, Flowers Canada (ON),

Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), Environment Canada, NORthern Centre for Advanced Technology (NORCAT), NSERC, BASF, ESTAC, Trojan Technologies, Ont Greenhouse Vegetables Producers Marketing Board (OGVPMB), Villacanale Farms Ltd., Cargill, Roses Inc., Honeywell

Collaborators:! National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) -Technology and information transfer related to complementary low pressure research at

KSC and Texas A&M

C R E S T e c h

Electrical and m e c h a n i c a l interface ports (above)

Controls and sensor interface

Vacuum pump (Busch Cobra)

Hydroponic solution tanks (above)