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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2004

Advanced Life Support Project: Crop Experiments at Kennedy Space Center

Crop production systems provide bioregenerative technologies to complement human crew life support requirements on long duration space missions. Kennedy Space Center has lead NASA's research on crop production systems that produce high value fresh foods, provide atmospheric regeneration, and perform water processing. As the emphasis on early missions to Mars has developed, our research focused on modular, scalable systems for transit missions, which can be developed into larger autonomous, bioregenerative systems for subsequent surface missions. Components of these scalable systems will include development of efficient light generating or collecting technologies, low mass plant growth chambers, and capability to operate in the high energy background radiation and reduced atmospheric pressures of space. These systems will be integrated with air, water, and thermal subsystems in an operational system. Extensive crop testing has been done for both staple and salad crops, but limited data is available on specific cultivar selection and breadboard testing to meet nominal Mars mission profiles of a 500-600 day surface mission. The recent research emphasis at Kennedy Space Center has shifted from staple crops, such as wheat, soybean and rice, toward short cycle salad crops such as lettuce, onion, radish, tomato, pepper, and strawberry. This paper will review the results of crop experiments to support the Exploration Initiative and the ongoing development of supporting technologies, and give an overview of capabilities of the newly opened Space Life Science (SLS) Lab at Kennedy Space Center. The 9662 square m (104,000 square ft) SLS Lab was built by the State of Florida and supports all NASA research that had been performed in Hanger-L. In addition to NASA research, the SLS Lab houses the Florida Space Research Institute (FSRI), responsible for co-managing the facility, and the University of Florida (UF) has established the Space Agriculture and Biotechnology Research and Education (SABRE) Center with several faculty.

Sager, John C.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Designing Experiments for SpinSat, A Novel Variable-Gravity-and-Radiation Platform for Deep-Space Science

Conducting experiments to measure the effects of deep-space radiation and reduced gravity on biological and physical systems remains challenging. The result is a substantial knowledge gap that poses risks to our ability to sustain life and conduct critical operations in deep space. The SpinSat spacecraft platform is designed to bridge such gaps by providing low-cost, reliable, and frequent access to deep space. A disk-shaped rotating satellite that can provide artificial gravity and exposure to space radiation simultaneously, SpinSat is designed to accommodate payloads in a CubeSat form factor (with at least 48 “U” volume), providing power, communications, and a benign thermal environment. It is orbit-agnostic, enabling access to a variety of radiation environments (Van Allen belts, deep space, cis-lunar); and can be equipped with shielding to mimic planetary radiation environments, for both short- and long-term experiments. Because of its versatility and prioritization of late loading for biological payloads, it is well suited to host a wide range of ranging from human tissues and organoids to microorganisms, plants, chemistry, and regolith. Here, we present examples of potential experiment concepts for SpinSat, and discuss the details of how experimental designs could interact with the platform. Potential SpinSat studies have diverse applications, including fundamental radiation biology and DNA repair; cancer biology and countermeasure development; space agriculture; bioproduction of nutrients and pharmaceuticals; understanding regolith dynamics in low gravity; prebiotic chemistry and panspermia. We will further highlight ideas for SpinSat-compatible experimental hardware, existing and in development, and experiment-relevant details on SpinSat capabilities including artificial gravity, potential radiation environments, data, and power. This presentation will aim to provide investigators with the high-level technical information necessary to inspire experiments for SpinSat. We also seek to stimulate conversation and to gain community input on accommodations needs to help guide the evolving design of this platform.

experiment design↗
NASA NTRS2014

NASA's Controlled Environment Agriculture Testing for Space Habitats

NASA and other space agencies have an interest in using plants for human life support in space. The plants could provide food and O2 for the humans, while removing CO2 and helping purify wastewater. Studies to date have shown that a wide range of crops can be grown in controlled environment conditions envisioned for space. Light is a critical factor both for crop productivity and system power costs, and recent improvements in LEDs make them a preferred lighting option for space. Because space systems would be tightly closed, issues such as ethylene build-up and management must be considered. Ultimately, the costs and reliability of biological life support options must be compared with more conventional life support approaches. Findings to date suggest that about 20-25 sq. meters of crops could supply the O2 for one human, while about 50 sq. meters would be required for food (dietary calories).

Bioregenerative↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Funding Opportunities at NASA for Space Plant Biology and Agriculture

NASA’s Artemis program marks the return of humankind to the Moon. Unlike the Apollo lunar missions, Artemis will set the stage for the continuous presence of humans on the Moon and pave a path for the journey to Mars and beyond. Plants will be an essential component of habitation systems that will enable humans to thrive on the lunar and Mars surface, and space transit vehicles because of their nutritional, psychological, and other life support benefits. To use plants for space exploration, there is a need to understand their biology in various space environments and how to best to grow them in controlled environment agriculture systems in space. This presentation will briefly address challenges of growing plants in space and present funding opportunities at NASA to help address these challenges.

Agriculture↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Controlled Environment Agriculture on the International Space Station

This presentation will discuss NASA’s Space Crop Production vision and introduce the crop plant research and production capabilities on the International Space Station, Veggie and the Advanced Plant Habitat. I will highlight the different crop production research that has been conducted in these facilities and discuss how these projects contribute to NASA’s goals and needs.

Gioia Massa↗
NASA NTRS1973

Agricultural and forest resource surveys from space

An overview is presented on the use of spaceborne remote sensors as aid to agriculture and forestry for soil mapping, crop yield predictions, acreage determinations, damage assessment, and numerous other benefits. Some results obtained by ERTS 1 are discussed in terms of the significance of information derived and the potential use of these data for better management of our natural resources.

Hoffer, R. M.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Utilizing LANDSAT imagery to monitor land-use change - A case study in Ohio

A study, performed in Ohio, of the nature and extent of interpretation errors in the application of Landsat imagery to land-use planning and modeling is reported. Potential errors associated with the misalignment of pixels after geometric correction and with misclassification of land cover or land use due to spectral similarities were identified on interpreted computer-compatible tapes of a portion of Franklin County for two adjacent days of 1975 and one day of 1973, and the extents of these errors were quantified by comparison with a ground-checked set of aerial-photograph interpretations. The open-space and agricultural categories are found to be the most consistently classified, while the more urban areas were classified correctly only from about 43 to 8% of the time. It is thus recommended that the direct application of Landsat data to land-use planning must await improvements in classification techniques and accuracy.

Gordon, S. I.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Space Biotechnology and Commercial Applications University of Florida

The Space Biotechnology and Commercial Applications grant was funded by NASA's Kennedy Space Center in FY 2002 to provide dedicated biotechnology and agricultural research focused on the regeneration of space flight environments with direct parallels in Earth-based applications for solving problems in the environment, advances in agricultural science, and other human support issues amenable to targeted biotechnology solutions. This grant had three project areas, each with multiple tasks. They are: 1) Space Agriculture and Biotechnology Research and Education, 2) Integrated Smart Nanosensors for Space Biotechnology Applications, and 3) Commercial Applications. The Space Agriculture and Biotechnology Research and Education (SABRE) Center emphasized the fundamental biology of organisms involved in space flight applications, including those involved in advanced life support environments because of their critical role in the long-term exploration of space. The SABRE Center supports research at the University of Florida and at the Space Life Sciences Laboratory (SLSL) at the Kennedy Space Center. The Integrated Smart Nanosensors for Space Biotechnology Applications component focused on developing and applying sensor technologies to space environments and agricultural systems. The research activities in nanosensors were coordinated with the SABRE portions of this grant and with the research sponsored by the NASA Environmental Systems Commercial Space Technology Center located in the Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences. Initial sensor efforts have focused on air and water quality monitoring essential to humans for living and working permanently in space, an important goal identified in NASA's strategic plan. The closed environment of a spacecraft or planetary base accentuates cause and effect relationships and environmental impacts. The limited available air and water resources emphasize the need for reuse, recycling, and system monitoring. It is essential to collect real-time information from these systems to ensure crew safety. This new class of nanosensors will be critical to monitoring the space flight environment in future NASA space systems. The Commercial Applications component of this program pursued industry partnerships to develop products for terrestrial use of NASA sponsored technologies, and in turn to stimulate growth in the biotechnology industry. For technologies demonstrating near term commercial potential, the objective is to include industry partners on or about the time of proof of concept that will not only co-invest in the technology but also take the resultant technology to the commercial market.

Phillips, Winfred↗
NASA NTRS1980

Spectral properties of agricultural crops and soils measured from space, aerial, field and laboratory sensors

It is pointed out that in order to develop the full potential of multispectral measurements acquired from satellite or aircraft sensors to monitor, map, and inventory agricultural resources, increased knowledge and understanding of the spectral properties of crops and soils are needed. The present state of knowledge is reviewed, emphasizing current investigations of the multispectral reflectance characteristics of crops and soils as measured from laboratory, field, aerial, and satellite sensor systems. The relationships of important biological and physical characteristics to their spectral properties of crops and soils are discussed. Future research needs are also indicated.

Bauer, M. E.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Basic principles, methodology, and applications of remote sensing in agriculture

The basic principles of remote sensing applied to agriculture and the methods used in data analysis are described. Emphasis is placed on the importance of developing a methodology that may help crop forecast, basic concepts of spectral signatures of vegetation, the methodology of the LANDSAT data utilization in agriculture, and the remote sensing program application of INPE (Institute for Space Research) in agriculture.

Moreira, M. A.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Landing in the future: Biological experiments on Earth and in space orbit

The development of an Earth biosatellite to duplicate the parameters of pressure, temperature, humidity and others in a space environment onboard Cosmos-1129 is discussed. Effects of a space environment on fruit flies, dogs, laboratory rats in procreation, behavior, stress, biorhythm, body composition, gravitation preference, and cell cultures are examined. The space environment for agricultural products is also studied. The effects of heavy nuclei of galactic space radiation on biological objects inside and outside the satellite is studied, and methods of electrostatic protection are developed.

Pokrovskiy, A.↗