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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 NTRS2002

Effect of hydraulic retention time on inorganic nutrient recovery and biodegradable organics removal in a biofilm reactor treating plant biomass leachate

A fixed-film (biofilm) reactor was designed and its performance was determined at various retention times. The goal was to find the optimal retention time for recycling plant nutrients in an advanced life support system, to minimize the size, mass, and volume (hold-up) of a production model. The prototype reactor was tested with aqueous leachate from wheat crop residue at 24, 12, 6, and 3 h hydraulic retention times (HRTs). Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), nitrates and other plant nutrients, carbohydrates, total phenolics, and microbial counts were monitored to characterize reactor performance. BOD removal decreased significantly from 92% at the 24 h HRT to 73% at 3 h. Removal of phenolics was 62% at the 24 h retention time, but 37% at 3 h. Dissolved oxygen concentrations, nitric acid consumption, and calcium and magnesium removals were also affected by HRT. Carbohydrate removals, carbon dioxide (CO2) productions, denitrification, potassium concentrations, and microbial counts were not affected by different retention times. A 6 h HRT will be used in future studies to determine the suitability of the bioreactor effluent for hydroponic plant production.

NASA Center KSC↗
NASA NTRS1979

Studies on the Mechanisms of Microbial Adaptation to the Physical Environment

The environmental factors which affect humans and other animals also influence the microorganisms which are such an important part of our ecology. Some of the microorganisms are very closely associated with animals, living in the digestive tract and synthesizing essential nutrients for the host. For these microbes, most external physical changes are of little consequence, because they are well shielded by the animals' homeostatic systems. The vast majority of microorganisms, however, live free in nature, especially in the soil and oceans. It has been estimated that the upper 15 cm of a fertile soil may contain over 4000 kg of bacteria and fungi per hectare. These organisms are responsible for degrading the complex molecules of plants and animals when they die, eventually producing simple organics, carbon dioxide, and inorganics, which are then used for the next cycle of plant growth. It is believed that over 90 % of the biologically produced carbon dioxide results from the metabolic activity of bacteria and fungi. In addition to recycling plant nutrients, soil bacteria also provide new nutrients through 'fixation' of atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia and nitrate, the forms which can be used by plants. Microorganisms so have an enormous capacity for detoxifying both natural and man-made poisons. All of these functions of microorganisms are essential to the operation of the material cycles on Earth. This is true of all locations on the planet, regardless of the climate or other environmental factors. In fact, one of the most impressive attributes of microorganisms is their ability to adapt to every stable environment on Earth. These include such extremes as polar regions, hot springs, water saturated with salt, mountain tops, ocean depths, acid and alkaline waters, deserts, intense radioactivity, soil and water contaminated with toxic chemicals or petroleum, and areas devoid of oxygen.

Heinrich, M. R.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Turning Gas into Greens

Scientists from Cook College, Rutgers University, and Stevens Institute of Technology conducted studies to create an experimental greenhouse that uses methane from decomposing trash to fuel a system that makes food. Biogasses created by the anaerobically decomposing trash are necessary to fulfill the energy needs of this revolutionary greenhouse. The primary emission, methane, is piped to the greenhouse boiler and used to fuel the hot water heating system. Thus far, the use of biogas has drastically reduced the operating costs of the greenhouse, eliminating the need for non-renewable fuels. The biogas will also generate electricity for the greenhouse in the near future. The plants are irrigated with recycled plant nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. These nutrients are delivered through hydroponics, the cultivation of plants in a nutrient solution rather than in soil. High-pressure sodium lamps augment the natural light, thereby boosting production and reducing cropping time. A total of 16 hours of light are provided to the crop each day, year-round. It only takes about 90 days for a seed to germinate and produce a tomato harvest. Not only is the food produced faster, the manual labor needed for the upkeep of the plants is also drastically reduced.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2001

Exobiochemistry

Exobiochemistry is the putative biochemistry of extraterrestrial life. It suggests the possible energy and material bases of extraterrestrial life and could help detect it. The diverse biochemistry of Earth indicates that a wide range of exobiochemistry is possible on other planets. An exobiochemistry will probably use the same energy sources as Earths ecology, light, biological organic material, and more rarely abiotic chemicals. Extraterrestrial life will be based on familiar chemical principles and probably capture, store, and release energy using oxidation-reduction reactions. Extraterrestrial life will give chemical indications of its existence. Key elements will be concentrated, stored, and recycled, altering their availability and isotopic composition. Any significant departure from chemical equilibrium would be good evidence for exobiochemistry, but an integrated system of departures from the expected equilibrium would be better. Exobiochemistry can be expected to include closed biogeochemical cycles of the major life supporting elements and may well show the complex dynamic close-coupled interactions that characterize the terrestrial biosphere. Terrestrial biochemistry provides a basis for generalization and extrapolation but it does not set bounds on exobiochemistry. In exobiochemistry we can expect: 1. closed chemical cycles that recycle materials, nutrients, and catalysts, 2. organisms with complementary metabolisms that cooperate to close the chemical cycles, 3. a high probability of a carbon and water chemistry, but some possibility of a non-carbon or non-water chemistry in extreme environments, and, 4. life similar to bacteria more prevalent than higher plants and animals.

Jones, Harry↗
NASA NTRS1979

Recycling plant, human and animal wastes to plant nutrients in a closed ecological system

The essential minerals for plant growth are nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium (macronutrients), calcium, magnesium, sulfur (secondary nutrients), iron, manganese, boron, copper, zinc, chlorine, sodium, and molybdenum (micronutrients). The first step in recycling wastes will undoubtedly be oxidation of carbon and hydrogen to CO2 and H2O. Transformation of minerals to plant nutrients depends upon the mode of oxidation to define the state of the nutrients. For the purpose of illustrating the type of processing required, ash and off-gas compositions of an incineration process were assumed and subsequent processing requirements were identified. Several processing schemes are described for separating out sodium chloride from the ash, leading to reformulation of a nutrient solution which should be acceptable to plants.

Meissner, H. P.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Nutrient management effects on sweetpotato genotypes under controlled environment

Sweetpotato is one of several crops recommended by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for bioregenerative life support studies. One of the objectives of the Tuskegee University NASA Center is to optimize growth conditions for adaptability of sweetpotatoes for closed bioregenerative systems. The role of nutrient solution management as it impacts yield has been one of the major thrusts in these studies. Nutrient solution management protocol currently used consists of a modified half Hoagland solution that is changed at 14-day intervals. Reservoirs are refilled with deionized water if the volume of the nutrient solution was reduced to 8 liters or less before the time of solution change. There is the need to recycle and replenish nutrient solution during crop growth, rather than discard at 14 day intervals as previously done, in order to reduce waste. Experiments were conducted in an environmental growth room to examine the effects of container size on the growth of several sweetpotato genotypes grown under a nutrient replenishment protocol. Plants were grown from vine cuttings of 15cm length and were planted in 0.15 x 0.15 x 1.2m growth channels using a closed nutrient film technique system. Nutrient was supplied in a modified half strength Hoagland's solution with a 1:2.4 N:K ratio. Nutrient replenishment protocol consisted of daily water replenishment to a constant volume of 30.4 liters in the small containers and 273.6 liters in the large container. Nutrients were replenished as needed when the EC of the nutrient solution fell below 1200 mhos/cm. The experimental design used was a split-plot with the main plot being container size and genotypes as the subplot. Nine sweetpotato genotypes were evaluated. Results showed no effect of nutrient solution container size on storage root yield, foliage fresh and dry mass, leaf area or vine length. However, plants grown using the large nutrient solution container accumulated more storage root dry mass than those with the small containers. Although plants grown with the smaller containers showed greater water uptake, plant nutrient uptake was lower than with the larger container. All genotypes evaluated showed variation in their responses to all parameters measured.

Solanaceae/genetics/growth & development↗
NASA NTRS1992

Characterization of the Water Soluble Component of Inedible Residue from Candidate CELSS Crops

Recycling of inorganic nutrients required for plant growth will be a necessary component of a fully closed, bioregenerative life support system. This research characterized the recovery of plant nutrients from the inedible fraction of three crop types (wheat, potato, and soybean) by soaking, or leaching, in water. A considerable portion of the dry weight of the inedible biomass was readily soluble (29 percent for soybean, 43 percent for wheat, and 52 percent for potato). Greater weight loss from potato was a result of higher tissue concentrations of potassium, nitrate, and phosphate. Approximately 25 percent of the organic content of the biomass was water soluble, while the majority of most inorganic nutrients, except for calcium and iron, were recovered in the leachate. Direct use of the leachates in hydroponic media could provide between 40-90 percent of plant nutrient demands for wheat, and 20-50 percent of demand for soybean and potato. Further evaluation of leaching as a component of resource recovery scheme in a bioregenerative system requires study of (1) utilization of plant leachates in hydroponic plant culture; and (2) conversion of organic material (both soluble and insoluble) into edible, or other useful, products.

Garland, Jay↗
NASA NTRS1992

Closed Ecological Life Support Systems (CELSS) Test Facility

The CELSS Test Facility (CTF) is being developed for installation on Space Station Freedom (SSF) in August 1999. It is designed to conduct experiments that will determine the effects of microgravity on the productivity of higher (crop) plants. The CTF will occupy two standard SSF racks and will accommodate approximately one square meter of growing area and a canopy height of 80 cm. The growth volume will be isolated from the external environment, allowing stringent control of environmental conditions. Temperature, humidity, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and light levels will all be closely controlled to prescribed set points and monitored. This level of environmental control is needed to prevent stress and allow accurate assessment of microgravity effect (10-3 to 10-6 x g). Photosynthetic rates and respiration rates, calculated through continuous recording of gas concentrations, transpiration, and total and edible biomass produced will be measured. Toxic byproducts will be monitored and scrubbed. Transpiration water will be collected within the chamber and recycled into the nutrient solution. A wide variety of crop plants, e.g., wheat, soy beans, lettuce, potatoes, can be accommodated and various nutrient delivery systems and light delivery systems will be available. In the course of its development, the CTF will exploit fully, and contribute importantly, to the state-of-art in closed system technology and plant physiology.

Macelroy, Robert D.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Practical and clinical nutritional concerns during spaceflight

Experience with space exploration to date has raised more questions regarding nutritional requirements for astronauts than it has answered. As mission lengths continue to increase, nutrient imbalances due to alterations in intake, dietary requirements, bioavailability, or excretion, may become more important. Factors adversely affecting intake include those as straightforward as stress and as complex as space-adaptation syndrome. Metabolic alterations induced by shifts in fluid and electrolyte balance, neuroendocrine function, and changes in hepatic protein synthesis and skeletal muscle type that result in nutrient partitioning to different biochemical pathways may also affect dietary requirements. Food processing effects on nutrient stability and digestibility, which apply to limited quantities of our usual diet on Earth, may become more important for diets that contain little fresh food during extended-length missions. Whereas nutrient and water recycling through ecosystems is taken for granted on Earth, specific effects of trace contaminant accumulation will require greater attention for prolonged space flights. Human factors, esthetics, and user-friendly operations will be necessary to facilitate the psychological as well as physiological health of the astronauts.

Review, Tutorial↗
NASA NTRS2012

Strategies for Stabilizing Nitrogenous Compounds in ECLSS Wastewater: Top-Down System Design and Unit Operation Selection with Focus on Bio-Regenerative Processes for Short and Long Term Scenarios

Water recycling and eventual nutrient recovery is crucial for surviving in or past low earth orbit. New approaches and syste.m architecture considerations need to be addressed to meet current and future system requirements. This paper proposes a flexible system architecture that breaks down pretreatment , steps into discrete areas where multiple unit operations can be considered. An overview focusing on the urea and ammonia conversion steps allows an analysis on each process's strengths and weaknesses and synergy with upstream and downstream processing. Process technologies to be covered include chemical pretreatment, biological urea hydrolysis, chemical urea hydrolysis, combined nitrification-denitrification, nitrate nitrification, anammox denitrification, and regenerative ammonia absorption through struvite formation. Biological processes are considered mainly for their ability to both maximize water recovery and to produce nutrients for future plant systems. Unit operations can be considered for traditional equivalent system mass requirements in the near term or what they can provide downstream in the form of usable chemicals or nutrients for the long term closed-loop ecological control and life support system. Optimally this would allow a system to meet the former but to support the latter without major modification.

Lunn, Griffin M.↗
NASA NTRS2016

The Role of Plants in Space Exploration: Some History and Background

For over 3 decades, NASA has sponsored research on crops for human life support in space. Specialized watering techniques have even been tested for weightless settings, but most studies used conventional watering, such as hydroponics, which should work well on surface settings of the Moon or Mars. NASAs testing has spanned a wide range of crops and studied innovative techniques to increase yields, reduce power, minimize growing volume, and recycle water and nutrients. These issues closely parallel challenges faced in terrestrial controlled environment agriculture, which is expanding around the world.

Bioregenerative↗
NASA NTRS1991

Closed-Cycle Nutrient Supply For Hydroponics

Hydroponic system controls composition and feed rate of nutrient solution and recovers and recycles excess solution. Uses air pressure on bladders to transfer aqueous nutrient solution. Measures and adjusts composition of solution before it goes to hydroponic chamber. Eventually returns excess solution to one of tanks. Designed to operate in microgravity, also adaptable to hydroponic plant-growing systems on Earth.

Schwartzkopf, Steven H.↗
NASA NTRS2020

NASA's Contributions to Vertical Farming

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. These systems will be volume and power constrained and will require recycling of water and nutrients. 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. NASA funded research helped test LEDs for plant lighting beginning in1990 and their continued development for the next 15 years. The explore volume efficiency, concepts such as vertically stacked hydroponic systems and light banks were tested in NASA’s Biomass Production Chamber at Kennedy Space Center, FL, US from 1988 through 2000. This was perhaps one of the first operational vertical farms. Findings from these and related tests around the world date suggest that with ~30-40 mol m-2 day-1 of photosynthetically active radiation, about 20-25 m2 of crops could supply the O2 for one human, while about 50 m2 would be required for food (dietary calories).

Raymond M Wheeler↗
NASA NTRS1980

Nutritional criteria for closed-loop space food systems

The nutritional requirements for Skylab crews are summarized as a data base for long duration spaceflight nutrient requirements. Statistically significant increases in energy consumption were detected after three months, along with CO2/O2 exhalation during exercise and thyroxine level increases. Linoleic acid amounting to 3-4 g/day was found to fulfill all fat requirements, and carbohydrate and protein (amino acid) necessities are discussed, noting that vigorous exercise programs avoid deconditioning which enhances nitrogen loss. Urinary calcium losses continued at a rate 100% above a baseline figure, a condition which ingestion of vitamin D2 did not correct. Projections are given that spaceflights lasting more than eight years will necessitate recycling of human waste for nutrient growth, which can be processed into highly efficient space food with a variety of tastes.

Rambaut, P. C.↗
NASA NTRS2020

The fate of organic carbon in marine sediments - New insights from recent data and analysis

Organic carbon in marine sediments is a critical component of the global carbon cycle, and its degradation influences a wide range of phenomena, including the magnitude of carbon sequestration over geologic timescales, the recycling of inorganic carbon and nutrients, the dissolution and precipitation of carbonates, the production of methane and the nature of the seafloor biosphere. Although much has been learned about the factors that promote and hinder rates of organic carbon degradation in natural systems, the controls on the distribution of organic carbon in modern and ancient sediments are still not fully understood. In this review, we summarize how recent findings are changing entrenched perspectives on organic matter degradation in marine sediments: a shift from a structurally-based chemical reactivity viewpoint towards an emerging acceptance of the role of the ecosystem in organic matter degradation rates. That is, organic carbon has a range of reactivities determined by not only the nature of the organic compounds, but by the biological, geochemical, and physical attributes of its environment. This shift in mindset has gradually come about due to a greater diversity of sample sites, the molecular revolution in biology, discoveries concerning the extent and limits of life, advances in quantitative modeling, investigations of ocean carbon cycling under a variety of extreme paleo-conditions (e.g. greenhouse environments, euxinic/anoxic oceans), the application of novel analytical techniques and interdisciplinary efforts. Adopting this view across scientific disciplines will enable additional progress in understanding how marine sediments influence the global carbon cycle.

Organic carbon↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Developing a Genetic Variant Calling Pipeline for Quantifying the Complex Mutagenic Load Accumulated in BioNutrients-1 Production Pack Samples

Microorganisms hold great promise for on demand production of labile nutrients and pharmaceuticals as well recycling and in situ resource utilization. The utilization of microorganisms for such tasks on space missions is hindered by the limited data on how microbes respond to spaceflight. For example, the genetic stability of microorganisms, and the genomic engineered traits added to deliver desired functions, over long-term storage in the spacecraft environment is poorly understood. The BioNutrients-1 (BN-1) mission conducted a 5-year study of desiccated storage in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to evaluate the suitability of eight synthetic biology chassis organisms for long-duration space missions. We are employing high-depth, whole genome sequencing (WGS) to determine the mutagenic load that accumulated during long-term storage. Mutation analysis pipelines are well established for homogenous culture grown from a single colony, but the mutational landscape of the BN-1 samples present a unique analysis challenge, as every cell in the BN-1 samples had a unique genetic journey of DNA damage and repair. Consequently, sequence variants are expected at low allele frequency within samples. To address this genetic complexity, we apply two distinct computational approaches to identify mutations in pre-existing WGS data collected from populations of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii that were exposed to UV mutagenesis and growth in LEO. For reference genome free mutation detection, we utilized DiscoSNP++, which is a de Bruijn graph approach. For reference genome-based mutation detection we utilize GATK for Microbes, which is a Bayesian probabilistic approach. We will benchmark these approaches against the mutations originally identified using CRISP, a method optimized for pooled samples. Ultimately, quantifying the mutation load imposed by storage or growth on the ISS will help identify chassis organisms with both high levels of genome stability and viability, which are desirable traits for implementation of bioproduction in long-duration missions.

SNP↗
NASA NTRS1983

Development of a prototype experiment for treating CELSS and PCELSS wastes to produce nutrients for plant growth

Future long term spaceflights require extensive recycling of wastes to minimize the need for resupplying the vessel. The recycling occurs in a fully or partially closed environment life support system (CELSS or PCELSS). The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is interested in converting wastewater into potable water or water for hydroponic farming as part of a CELSS. The development of technologies for wastewater treatment that produce a minimum of by-products is essential. One process that achieves good conversion of moderately concentrated organic wastes in water (1 to 20% by weight) completely to carbon dioxide and water is oxidation in supercritical water. Both air (or oxygen) and many organics are completely miscible with supercritical water, so there are no interphase mass transport resistances that limits the overall oxidation reaction. The temperature of supercritical water, which must be above 374 C, is also sufficient to have rapid reaction kinetics for the oxidations.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1994

Life Sciences and Space Research 25 (3): Natural and Artifical Ecosystems; Meeting F4 of the COSPAR Plenary Meeting, 29th, Washington, DC, Aug. 28-Sep. 5, 1992

Bioregenerative life support systems will be an essential part of long duration manned space flight. Studies have been made of various components of these closed ecological systems. these studies have included those spaceborne experiments on Spacelab and Mir, as well as ground-based simulations. The effects of reduced gravity include alterations in food crop and other plant growth and vigor. Systems have also been designed and tested to provide a balanced regenerative system that recycles airborne and other wastes while providing nutrients and other input for future cycles. Hydroponic cultivation must include control of pathogens. All closed systems require sensing and automatic control.

Macelroy, R. D.↗