The concept of using plants to support humans for future space travel has been discussed for over 50 years. Plants could provide food and oxygen, while removing CO2 from the cabin air. The scaling will be dependent on the mission duration and infrastructure. For example, leafy greens, dwarf tomatoes and peppers have already been grown on the International Space Station using small plant chambers. This provides some fresh food and valuable nutrients for the crew, while the bulk of the diet comes from packaged foods supplied from Earth. But for longer missions to Mars or long surface stays on the Moon, resupply is more difficult and costly and larger crop growth systems become more viable. Regardless of the scale, these efforts require controlled environment agriculture (CEA), where water, fertilizer, light, and CO2 are provided to the plants. The talk will review some of NASA’s efforts in CEA and the challenges for doing this is space.

Ray Wheeler is a plant physiologist and senior scientist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida, where he has led the advanced life support and plant research groups. This includes controlled environment studies with crops for food and oxygen production, CO2 removal, and wastewater processing. Part of this work involved plant testing in NASA’s Biomass Production Chamber, one of the first vertical farms in the world. Over the years, Ray has studied plant responses to gravity, CO2, light, atmospheric pressure, and hydroponic crop cultivation. Ray has been co-investigator for several spaceflight experiments, including the first test to demonstrate potato tuber development in space, and studies using the “Veggie” and Advanced Plant Habitat growth chambers to grow fresh vegetables on the International Space Station. Ray did his graduate research on plant gravitational biology at Utah State University and postdoctoral work at the University of Wisconsin, where he studied potatoes as a candidate space crop. Ray is the author or co-author of 280 scientific research papers and currently serves as Chief Scientist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Ray has received NASA’s Exceptional Scientific the Achievement Medal, NASA Exceptional Service Medal, the USDA B.Y. Morrison Distinguished Lecturer Award, the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research Founder’s Award, the American Institution for Aeronautics and Astronautics Jeffries Award for Aerospace Medicine and Life Science Research, and served as Vice Chair for the Life Sciences Commission for the International Committee on Space Research.