Crop Monitoring for Space

Plants are likely to be an integral part of any Advanced Life Support (ALS) system for future long-term human missions to the Moon or Mars because bioregenerative ALS technologies are the only processes which can partially or completely close the life support loops in crewed spacecraft (Ming & Henninger 1989; Olson et al. 1988; Schwartzkopf 1992; Wheeler et al. 2003).

Bioregenerative ALS systems will utilize higher plants, like beans, lettuce, potato, and wheat (Tibbits & Alford 1980; Wheeler et al. 2003) to recycle water, oxygen, and edible biomass during long-term missions to the Moon or Mars.

The following plants were used in these experiments:
· (a) pepper (Capsicum annuum, cv. ‘California Wonder’)
· (b) lettuce (Lactuca sativa, cv. ‘Flandria’)
· (c) tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum, cv. ‘Early Girl’)

Lettuce plants were started from seed, and tomato and pepper plants were started from seedlings purchased at a local nursery.

The hyperspectral measurements of plant canopies were conducted inside a darkened lab by transferring plants (as required) from the M-48 plant growth chamber to the lab.

The results presented herein were part of an ongoing project to develop an automated remote sensing system for monitoring crop health within bioregenerative ALS systems. Such a system is essential for space-based ALS modules in order to reduce the ESM of the life-support system to acceptable levels. By using an automated remote sensing system, astronauts and mission controllers are likely to minimize the time required for direct human monitoring of the biological components within the ALS system. Such an automated remote sensing system would combine various instruments, heuristic computer algorithms, environmental sensors, and periodic human intervention to deliver optimum crop productivity within the space-based bioregenerative ALS system.

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