Aeroponic cultivation supplied with greywater for future long-term space missions
- Paper number
IAC-19,A1,IP,17,x54066
- Author
Ms. Anna Jurga, Poland, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology
- Coauthor
Ms. Joanna Kuźma, Poland, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology
- Coauthor
Dr. Kamil Janiak, Poland, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology
- Coauthor
Prof. Włodzimierz Breś, Poland
- Year
2019
- Abstract
Water and nutrients recovery are essential in Bioregenerative Life Support System. In this system created wastewater are treated and reused for food production. It is obligatory for this system to have efficient resource recovery and be simple as possible, since costs of supplying and consequences of failure are enormous. In this paper one aspect of food production module is taken into consideration. It is assumed that food production module is a aeroponic system and grey water is used as water source for plants. Tested hypothesis is: is it possible to cultivate lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) with untreated grey water in aeroponic system? In future extraterrestrial colony greywater will be the largest wastewater stream in terms of volume. Thus, no need for purification would be a significant simplification of a system and therefore advantage in terms of costs of transport and safety of space station. Lettuce is chosen as it is fast growing plant that is usually included in space menus provided in literature. Hypothesis is tested in lab-scale aeroponics facility that includes five separate modules for aeroponic lettuce cultivation. In each module up to 10 lettuces are cultivated. Four modules are supplied with artificial grey water (tap water + surfactants) enriched with nutrients while fifth module is a reference supplied with clean water enriched with nutrients. The composition of the nutrient solution was controlled every 7 days. The change in surfactant concentration was controlled every 3-4 days. Results of research includes analyses of final mass and size of lettuces and roots zone, visual quality assessment.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)