What It Takes to Grow Produce in Space
Arizona's Murat Kacira explains the Mars Lunar Greenhouse Prototype project and how space agriculture and work done in the University of Arizona’s Controlled Environment Agriculture Center aren't too different.
In his July 24 presentation at the “Training the Next Generation of Space Farmers” webinar, part of the SpaceAg Conversations series put on by Agritecture, Dr. Murat Kacira began, “When we consider space exploration, the resources are limited.” These limitations present unique challenges. At the most basic, any food-growing system has to work without external inputs. Everything, including air, water, nutrients and waste products must be reliably recycled into the system. “A truly closed bioregenerative life support system must handle feedback loops, for instance, like one crop failing or an unexpected microbial outbreak, or hardware system issues without collapsing,” he added.
The ability for us to grow fresh food in space is an essential part of the solution to the challenges for NASA’s long-duration human exploration of the moon and beyond.” - Murat Kacira, director of the University of Arizona’s Controlled Environment Agriculture Center.
Read more on the Packer News website here.
Investigate Dr. Kacira’s VIP Team here: Increasing Environmental Resilience Through MISAS: Modular Integrated Sustainable Agricultural Systems