Engineering problems and aspects of the technological equipment in Space Plant Growth Systems

As human presence in space becomes longer, supplying all food, oxygen and water from Earth will result in a tremendous cost. For this reason the international scientific community has been making efforts towards developing technologies and equipment to realise a sustainable Bioregenerative Life Support System for food production, water purification, air revitalisation and waste recovery. Plants produce food and oxygen for human needs, contribute to remove and reclaim carbon dioxide, relative humidity and the organic wastes. Aim of this research is a critical analysis of the materials and equipment requirements used up to now, in order to highlight the equipment engineering solutions for a system for plant cultivation on-board the International Space Station supported by Italian Space Agency. Creating a Bioregenerative Life Support System is an extremely sophisticated scientific problem. Space environment is characterised by the absence of the Earth’s gravitational and magnetic fields, of tidal forces and of the influence of the cyclical events of celestial mechanics and so, the prediction of fluid and heat behaviour is less intuitive. Besides, this environment would severely impact plant growth and metabolism. In space an enclosed environmentallycontrolled plant growth system must control and regulate the atmospheric parameters and the atmospheric gas composition, provide light energy for photosynthesis and supply the plants with the appropriate nutrient and water to support photosynthesis and to compensate for the evaporation and transpiration losses.