Gardens in Space : Scientists Sow the Seeds of Dinner on the Moon
Utah State University researchers Frank Salisbury and Bruce Bugbee see beyond hybrid wheat thriving in hydroponic gardens to a day when their experiments will help feed human colonies on the moon and Mars.
It is that vision--of mankind planted safely beyond the pale of earthly limitations--that has kept the two plant scientists firm in their commitment to space agriculture despite tight funding and the knowledge that they may not live to see their research implemented.
“It’s long-range research that really has to be done now to be used later,” said Bugbee, 38, the principal researcher for the university’s controlled ecological life-support system project.
“And it’s just plain interesting,” he added. “Something as complex as a closed life-support system is just fascinating. We’re trying to duplicate all the functions of planet Earth in a relatively small capsule.”
Bugbee and Salisbury, 62, who serves on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s aerospace medical advisory committee, say it could be 30 years or more before a permanent human colony is established on the moon and another decade beyond that before Mars is settled.
Nonetheless, they believe that their work will survive them.
“I don’t think we can seriously talk about a permanent colony on the moon or Mars without talking about (the life-support project),” Salisbury said.
Plants raised under hydroponics are grown in nutrient-rich solutions rather than soil.
Although funding for the hydroponic project--about $130,000 a year since it was approved by NASA in 1981--is minuscule compared with the billions spent on the nation’s manned space flight program, Salisbury and Bugbee point with pride to its accomplishments.
Simulating as closely as possible the conditions of a lunar or Martian colonial farm through variations in lighting and atmosphere, the project has grown a Mexican dwarf variety of wheat with yields of 60 grams of edible wheat per square yard per day.
That is five times the estimated world record of 12 to 14 grams, Salisbury said.
Salisbury and Bugbee, believing that they are near the theoretical production limits for wheat in an extraterrestrial colony setting, say they will next turn their attention to wheat’s performance in zero gravity--a crucial consideration for the day when mankind embarks on space voyages too long to be sustained by stored food.
To that end, they are preparing an experiment for a future space shuttle mission. NASA has approved the project, but it has yet to be scheduled for flight, the two said in telephone interviews from the school’s campus in Logan, 60 miles north of Salt Lake City.
Food and Pure Air
Salisbury and Bugbee say a space farm could feed the Mars mission’s crew and purify air and water supplies. For example, a 13-square-yard space farm could feed one person indefinitely.
Looking beyond exploration to colonization of the moon and Mars, the researchers believe that a farm about the size of a football field could provide the food and oxygen needs of 100 or more people.
A hydroponic space farm, unlike those on Earth, would not be maintained as one huge unit but would be made up of a number of self-contained compartments to guard against the spread of plant diseases. Further, it probably would produce far more food than needed, ranging from 20% to 100% more, as a hedge against unexpected losses.
