Journal
JOURNAL OF PLANT INTERACTIONS
Volume 4, Issue 4, Pages 241-252Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/17429140903161348
Keywords
altered gravity; closed ecological systems; hydroponics; plant evolution; Space environment
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Future Space stations and Space habitats/outposts should be envisioned as self-sufficient ecological closed or semi-closed systems. The Italian Space Agency (ASI) projects have involved many research groups from complementary areas with a final goal of designing a facility for plant cultivation in Space. It has been critical to (i) identify, for this particular environment, highly productive species able to optimize O-2 production/CO2 consumption, and (ii) develop high-tech controlled environments. Research activities have included seedling production in simulated microgravity and in Space with the two-fold objective of (i) integrating the crew diet with fresh food, and (ii) studying specific biological phenomena. Another research topic concerned pollen biology as a critical component for seed-to-seed cycles but also for gametophytic selection. In this context, a review of the main scientific topics on plant Space biology and of the Italian efforts on agro-biology for bioregenerative Life Support Systems will be presented and discussed in this paper.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available