If you’re going to be out in space for months and years, you have to have something to eat.
Thus, a space-based greenhouse is a likely solution.
The first one will be launched in the spring of 2023. More precisely, it will be “the only commercially owned and operated spaceflight-qualified plant growth platform capable of growing plants from seed to maturity in space,” announced the developer, Redwire Corporation, a company specializing in space infrastructure, last week.
Called Redwire Greenhouse, it will be the first commercially owned greenhouse installed on the International Space Station (ISS).
“The Redwire Greenhouse will provide a simple, scalable commercial solution for customers seeking to advance crop science from benchtop laboratory facilities to true production in space,” says a company press release.
“Redwire Greenhouse will expand opportunities for scientific discovery to improve crop production on Earth and enable critical research for crop production in space to benefit future long-duration human spaceflight,” said Dave Reed, Redwire Florida launch site operations director and Greenhouse project manager.
“Growing full crops in space will be critical to future space exploration missions as plants provide food, oxygen and water reclamation. Increasing the throughput of crop production research in space, through commercially developed capabilities, will be important to deliver critical insights for NASA’s Artemis missions and beyond.”
Along with supporting long-term NASA exploration plans, the Redwire Greenhouse will provide accessibility to institutional and commercial customers with plant science and industrial research goals.
The greenhouse will use the company’s plant growth technology, which is already flight-qualified. The technology will include Passive Orbital Nutrient Delivery System (PONDS) devices developed in partnership with Tupperware Brands and currently operated by Redwire on the ISS.
During next spring’s flight, Dewey Scientific will grow industrial hemp for a gene expression study in a 60-day experiment. Dewey specializes in “end to end scientific solutions for the hemp and cannabis industry.”
