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Gioia Massa

Publications and source records attributed to Gioia Massa.

At least 91 records · Page 5
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Space Crop Production and Interdisciplinary Teamwork

As astronauts venture farther from Earth, and stay for longer periods, the space food system will increase in importance. Crop production can supplement a packaged diet to provide additional nutrients and dietary variety for astronauts. Several unique challenges exist for growth of plants in microgravity and on other planetary surfaces and solving these requires skills and abilities from different fields as diverse as microgravity fluid physics to human behavioral and psychological health. Research on the ground and tests with the Veggie and Advanced Plant Habitat chambers on the International Space Station are allowing us to understand the impacts of gravity and spaceflight on hardware, crop growth, nutritional content, food acceptability, and the importance of plants to astronauts living and working away from our blue home planet. Working through setbacks with interdisciplinary teams is critical to make progress in this challenging applied science area.

Gioia Massa↗
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Plants in Space & Space Crop Production

A short video presentation on space crop production research and challenges for educators attending the 2024 Space Exploration Educators Conference at Space Center Houston.

Gioia Massa↗
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Space Crop Production and Growing Beyond Earth

An outreach presentation for the Growing Beyond Earth Spring Student Symposium. Two versions will be given, in person, and virtual. In person will have bio slides for in-person participants. Virtual has no bios but an additional slide on the space crop vision.

Gioia Massa↗
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A Simulated High CO 2 Spaceflight Environment Increases Plant Preference for Ammonium as a Nitrogen Source.

The growth of crops to sustain astronauts will be critical to long-duration spaceflight missions. Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) concentrations are very high in spaceflight cabin environments, often 5-10X the CO 2 concentration on Earth 1 . It is therefore crucial to understand how plants respond to elevated CO 2 (eCO 2 ). Nitrogen (N) is important for plant survival, though the effects of eCO 2 on plant uptake of different N forms remain poorly understood. Shoot nitrate assimilation may be reduced at eCO 2 due to a decrease in available reducing power through increased carbon fixation and inhibition of photorespiration 2 , suggesting that eCO 2 may increase plant ammonium preference (Figure 1). A deeper understanding of changes in plant nitrogen form preference in response to eCO 2 will inform nutrient optimization for future space crop production and wastewater processing system design requirements 3 in addition to developing future eCO 2 climate-ready crops.

nitrogen↗
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Plants in Space and Space Crop Production

As astronauts venture farther from Earth, and for longer periods, food will become increasingly critical. Crop production can supplement a packaged diet to provide additional nutrients and dietary variety for astronauts. Several unique challenges exist for growth of plants in microgravity and on other planetary surfaces, and teachers and students are helping NASA to solve these complex challenges. Testing with the Veggie and Advanced Plant Habitat chambers on the International Space Station is allowing us to understand the impacts of gravity and spaceflight on crop growth and nutritional content, and the importance of plants to astronauts living and working away from our blue home planet.

Gioia Massa↗
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Space Crop Production Gaps and Challenges

As astronauts venture farther from Earth, and stay for longer periods, the space food system will increase in importance. Crop production can supplement a pre-packaged space diet to provide nutrition and dietary variety for space crews. In future missions, bioregenerative approaches may be used to generate a larger percentage of the diet, as well as help to reduce life support system burdens and resupply from Earth. Plants may also provide behavioral health benefits to crew members living in the isolated, confined environment of a space habitat. A number of unique challenges exist for growth of plants in microgravity and on other reduced gravity surfaces like the moon and Mars. Testing plant growth inside the Veggie and Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) chambers on the International Space Station is allowing us to understand the impacts of gravity and spaceflight on crop growth, nutritional content, acceptability, and the importance of plants to astronauts living and working away from Earth. We are also gaining a better understanding of food safety concerns and the behavior of space plant microbiomes and plant pathogens, but major gaps in knowledge remain. As we move from research towards operational space crop production to enable exploration, there are numerous gaps in technology, knowledge, and practice related to space crop growth that must be addressed. Research and development in key focus areas such as effective water and nutrient delivery at variable gravity levels, autonomous plant health monitoring, growth system cleaning and disinfection, and selection of ideal space crops are needed to fill these gaps. Breeding or engineering custom space crops may impact areas including plant growth and development, plant physiology, produce nutrition, organoleptic acceptability, and post-harvest characteristics, and these may further enable space crop production scenarios. Space crop challenges are multifaceted and require diverse interdisciplinary teams working together to develop effective solutions. Solving these requires an array of skill sets from across the biological and physical sciences, engineering, and human social sciences. Solutions to help ensure food security off-Earth may also translate to more sustainable terrestrial crop production approaches, and regular dialog between industry, academia, and government organizations working in related fields benefit all. Additional help can come from engagement with student researchers at various levels through courses, participatory science projects, and open science activities which can provide useful data. Global coordination and integration between space agencies and partners will be essential.

Gioia Massa↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Simulated High CO 2 Spaceflight Environment Increases Plant Preference for Ammonium as a Nitrogen Source.

Future long-duration missions will require a sustainable supply of food to support human crews. The spaceflight cabin environment often contains very high concentrations of CO 2 due to release of CO 2 by astronauts that is not completely scrubbed from the cabin, and it is therefore crucial to understand plant responses to elevated CO 2 (eCO 2 ) environments. Much focus has been given to changes in plant photosynthetic and performance parameters in response to eCO 2 , but the effects of eCO 2 on nitrogen (N) uptake are poorly understood. Shoot nitrate reduction may be reduced at eCO 2 , likely due to less reductant available for nitrate reduction because of reduced photorespiration and increased carbon fixation 1. Relative growth rate can be reduced at eCO 2 when N is provided only as nitrate and can be unaffected when N is supplied as ammonium 1. However, N uptake in response to eCO 2 has, to our knowledge, not yet been studied. An increased ‘preference’ for plants to take up N as ammonium at eCO 2 could have important implications for growth in the space environment, where N is currently only supplied as nitrate. In this study, novel stable isotope approaches were used in conjunction with hydroponics and isotope ratio mass spectrometry to determine the effect of eCO 2 on N preference for ammonium or nitrate in spring barley and lettuce when both N forms are provided equally. Several varieties of spring barley displayed increased ammonium preference at eCO 2 (720 ppm) compared to ambient CO 2 (410 ppm), though this was not true for all varieties 2. In most cases, increases in ammonium preference were driven by increases in ammonium uptake at eCO 2 and not decreases in nitrate uptake. Current research is assessing whether similar responses are observed in the candidate space crop lettuce, at levels of CO 2 like those observed on ISS (3000 ppm), and these results will also be presented. This work will enable the development of optimized nutrient regimes for candidate crops in space environments and the selection of crop varieties adapted to eCO 2 environments. Plants adapted to ammonium nutrition may play a role in future plant-based bioregenerative life support systems with higher ammonium concentrations due to waste recycling 3. Moreover, this research will further our understanding of plant responses to the eCO 2 environment brought about by climate change, allowing the development of future-proof crops that will help to maintain food security. References: 1. Bloom (2015). The increasing importance of distinguishing among plant nitrogen sources. Current Opinion in Plant Biology 25, 10-16. 2. Fountain (2023). Understanding interactions of barley (Hordeum vulgare) with soil nitrogen cycling activity and links to plant nitrogen preference. Ph.D. Thesis, The University of Sheffield. 3. Schiefloe et al. (2023). From urine to food and oxygen: effects of high and low NH4+:NO3- ratio on lettuce cultivated in a gas-tight hydroponic facility. Frontiers in Plant Science 14:1229476.

nitrogen↗
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Space Crop Production

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Gioia Massa↗
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Plants in Space and Space Crop Production

As astronauts venture farther from Earth, and for longer periods, food will become increasingly critical. Crop production can supplement a packaged diet to provide additional nutrients and dietary variety for astronauts, and plants may also provide psychological and environmental benefits. Several unique challenges exist for growth of plants in microgravity and on other planetary surfaces. Terrestrial tests in analog space environments contribute to our knowledge, while testing on the International Space Station allows us to better understand the impacts of gravity and spaceflight on crop growth and the importance of plants to astronauts living and working away from our blue home planet.

Gioia Massa↗