Centralized Testing Facility for Space Food Production, Handling, and Bioregenerative Processes

Kurzfassung

Exploration missions beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) pose unique challenges, especially in providing a sustainable food system for extended crewed missions. Due to resource constraints and food acceptability issues, relying solely on Earth resupply missions is impractical and not always feasible. As a result, in-situ food production is essential for sustained human space travel. While current space food research shows promise in a variety of areas, there are still important technological gaps, particularly in macronutrient-rich crop production, post-harvest management such as food storage and processing, and cohesive bioeconomic strategies. To address this issue, we propose a Centralized Testing Facility for Food System Research, that will interlink all major food production functions into one ground test demonstrator to serve as a hub for multidisciplinary research and inter-agency and industry collaboration. This facility will foster diverse research and innovation in food production, post-harvest management, and bio-based material utilization. Such a facility will provide the unique opportunity to systematically test and evaluate the interactions between various food research, technologies, and systems such as food processing, food storage, side stream management, and equipment innovation. This approach will promote cohesion and integration, and prevent research from occurring in isolated silo activities. The facility aims to serve as a proof of concept of a versatile closed-loop food production system, specifically designed for future lunar habitats, allowing for comprehensive testing and acceleration of any related research. Furthermore, this provides an opportunity to evaluate new food production and management technologies, assessing their merits and potential integration into future exploration architectures. This paper outlines the preliminary designs and concepts for Centralized Testing Facility for Food System Research (CTFF) under development at the DLR Department of Planetary Infrastructures, specifically designed to tackle these challenges.