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The Breadboard Project at Kennedy Space Center has focused on the development of the bioregenerative life support components, crop plants for water, air, and food production and bioreactors for recycling of waste. The keystone of the Breadboard Project has been the Biomass Production Chamber (BPC), which is supported by 15 environmentally controlled chambers and 2150 m2 (23,200 ft2) of laboratory facilities. The Project objectives, in support of the ALS Program, utilize these facilities for large-scale testing of components and development of required technologies for the human testbeds at JSC, flight experiments, and ALS research to enable a Mars mission.

The first spaceflight opportunities for Advanced Life Support (ALS) Project testing with plants will likely occur with missions on vehicles in Low Earth Orbit, such as the International Space Station (ISS). In these settings, plant production systems would likely be small chambers with limited electrical power. Such systems are adequate for salad-type crops that provide moderate quantities of fresh, flavorful foods to supplement the crew diet. Successful operation of salad crop systems in the space environment requires extensive ground-based testing with horticultural methodologies that meet expected mission constraints. At Kennedy Space Center, cultivars of radish, onion, and lettuce are being compared for performance under these “flight-like” conditions.

Regenerative life support systems are under development to reduce the need for resupply of essential commodities during long duration space missions. If higher plants are used to supply food, oxygen, and potable water, composters could be used to stabilize solid wastes, provide CO2 and nutrients to the plants, and achieve pathogen reduction. Small-scale aerobic composting was used successfully to degrade organic compounds in inedible potato biomass. Soluble nutrients were extracted from the compost at concentrations that supported seed germination. Further work is indicated to understand the inhibitory effects of some leachates. Future composter designs should allow improved performance through better instrumentation and process control.

An atmospherically sealed chamber has been constructed for the purpose of studying gas, liquid, and microbial contaminants produced by growing food crops. This chamber is designed to provide suitable biomass for evaluation of quality, yield, volume, and energy for different environments and nutrient delivery systems.