Montreal Space Symposium 2019

Long-duration space exploration, including travel to the Moon and Mars with semi-permanent colonization, will require plant production for human consumption. However, plant growth in space includes many unique challenges. With the inclusion of the Veggie plant growth system on the ISS, NASA has taken an interest in using plants for biological life support for food, water and air recovery. However, to date most trials have obtained plant yields that are orders of magnitude lower than for earth-based production. Large challenges remain as technologies are developed that can bridge this yield gap. This talk will provide an overview of the challenges and direction of the plant growth research and future plans to move this research forward.