Evaluating and optimizing horticultural regimes in space plant growth facilities

Area of Science:

• Space agriculture
• Biotechnology
• Engineering

Background:

• Designing space plant growth facilities (SPGF) for long-duration spaceflight faces limitations in onboard resources like volume, energy, heat transfer, and crew labor.
• Current methods for evaluating onboard resources, such as equivalent mass methodology, lack precision due to uncertainties in hardware properties and system technologies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a simple optimization criterion, Qmax, for horticultural regimes in SPGF.
• To provide a more accurate method for evaluating resource consumption in space-based crop production.

Main Methods:

• Developed the optimization criterion Qmax = max [M x (EBI)2/(V x E x T].
• Defined key parameters: M (crop harvest/total dry biomass), EBI (edible biomass index/harvest index), V (crop volume), E (crop light energy supply), and T (crop growth duration).

Main Results:

• The Qmax criterion directly reflects onboard resource consumption for crop production.
• This metric offers a more precise approach to optimizing horticultural regimes within SPGF constraints.

Conclusions:

• The Qmax criterion provides a valuable tool for designing efficient and resource-conscious SPGF.
• Accurate evaluation of resource utilization is crucial for successful long-duration space missions and sustainable space agriculture.