Overview of experiment results from the first research campaign of the EDEN ISS greenhouse facility in Antarctica in 2018

Abstract

EDEN ISS is a European project focused on advancing bio-regenerative life support systems, in particular plant cultivation in space. A mobile test facility was designed and built between March 2015 and October 2017. The facility incorporates a Service Section which houses several subsystems necessary for plant cultivation and the Future Exploration Greenhouse. The latter is built similar to a future space greenhouse and provides a fully controlled environment for plant cultivation. The facility was setup in Antarctica in close vicinity to the German Neumayer Station III in January 2018 and successfully operated between February and November of the same year. During that nine month period around 270 kg of food was produced by the crops cultivated in the greenhouse. Besides the mere production of food for the overwintering crew (10 people) of the Neumayer Station III a large number of experiments were conducted. These experiments delivered valuable data for engineering of space greenhouses, horticultural sciences, microbiology, food quality and safety, psychology and operation of a food production facility in a remote environment. Component and subsystem validation was conducted to better understand engineering issues when building a space greenhouse. Fresh edible and inedible biomass was measured upon every harvest, dry weight ratios were determined and crop life cycle data was collected. More than 400 plant and microbiological samples were taken for the microbiology, and food quality and safety scientists working on the project. Some samples were composed of freeze dried plant tissue, but most samples were frozen at -40°C and shipped to Europe for analysis in specialized laboratories. A survey with the overwintering crew was executed to get information about the impact of the greenhouse on the crew during the nine month long winter season. Operation procedures for horticultural tasks, but also for system maintenance were developed and tested. The required crewtime, energy and resources demands were measured. This presentation shows for the first time a complete overview of the research results of the 2018 EDEN research campaign in Antarctica close to the Neumayer Station III.