Failure Analysis: Crop production on the Lunar surface

Transcription

1 Utah State University NASA Crop Physiology Lab 22 Failure Analysis: Crop production on the Lunar surface Julie K. Chard Utah State University Giridhar Akula Bruce Bugbee Utah State University, Follow this and additional works at: Part of the Plant Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Chard, Julie K.; Akula, Giridhar; and Bugbee, Bruce, "Failure Analysis: Crop production on the Lunar surface" (22). NASA. Paper 3. This Presentation is brought to you for free and open access by the Crop Physiology Lab at It has been accepted for inclusion in NASA by an authorized administrator of For more information, please contact

2 Failure Analysis: Crop production on the Lunar surface Mitigating the Effects of Prolonged ness with Reduced Temperature and Low Light Julie Chard, Giridhar Akula, & Bruce Bugbee

3 Background We have sought to optimize conditions for crop yield for many years, but optimal conditions will not always be cost effective. More importantly, environmental control systems routinely fail, and we need to learn how to gracefully recover from these failures. Failures of the power supply system are among the most common and most detrimental of all system failures. A battery back-up could supply a small amount of power during a power outage, but we need to know how to best utilize the back-up power. Early in this project, it became clear that the detrimental effects of a power loss could be mitigated by reducing temperature and adding low light. This was so effective that we began to investigate crop production using natural light on the lunar surface. This requires keeping plants alive and healthy during the 14.7 day-long interval on the dark side of the Moon.

4 Lunar base agriculture must tolerate 14.7 days on the dark side 14.7-d Light 14.7-d

5 Lunar Station - Bright sunlight for 14.7 days. - Small nuclear reactor or batteries to provide some environmental control on the dark side.

6 Literature Review Four studies examined a similar approach: Terskov, I.A., G.M. Lisovskiy, S.A. Ushakova, O.V. Parshina and L.P. Moiseyenko Possibility of using higher plants in Lunar life-support systems. Space Biology and Aerospace Medicine 3: Kubota, C. and T. Kozai Low-temperature storage for quality preservation and growth suppression of broccoli plantlets cultured in vitro. HortScience 29: Kubota, C., G. Niu and T. Kozai Low temperature storage for production management of in vitro plants: Effects of air temperature and light intensity on preservation of plantlet dry weight and quality during storage. Acta Horticulturae 393: Heins, R.D., M.P. Kaczperski, T.F. Wallace Jr., N.E. Lange, W.H. Carlson, and J.A. Flore Low-temperature storage of bedding plant plugs. Acta Horticulturae 396:

7 Materials and Methods Control: 28 days light (16-h photoperiod) Light Light Day Day 14 Day 28 Treatment: 28 days light + 14 days failure Light Light Day Day 14 Day 28 Day 42 Reduced temperature., 1, or 2% light. Post Storage Harvest Treated plants got the same total amount of light over 42 days that control plants got over 28 days. This represents a light period, a dark period, and another light period on the Lunar surface.

8 Visual appearance of plants after 14-d of failure Light Light Light Light Control (day 28) LETTUCE Post Storage 3 C 7 C 12 C 18 C 2 C PPF = 3 C 7 C 12 C 18 C 2 C PPF = 1 3 C 7 C 12 C 18 C 2 C

9 Visual appearance of plants at harvest Light Light Light Light Control (day 28) LETTUCE Harvest 3 C 7 C 12 C 18 C 2 C PPF = 3 C 7 C 12 C 18 C 2 C PPF = 1 3 C 7 C 12 C 18 C 2 C

10 Effect of light and temperature on lettuce fresh mass at harvest on day 42. Control was harvested on day 28. Total Fresh Mass Per Plant (g) Lettuce Temperature During 14-d "Failure" ( o C) PPF 1

11 Visual appearance of plants after 14-d of failure (Post Storage) SPINACH 3 C 7 C 12 C 18 C 2 C PPF = 3 C 7 C 12 C 18 C 2 C Control (day 28) PPF = 1 3 C 7 C 12 C 18 C 2 C

12 Visual appearance of plants at Harvest 3 C 7 C 12 C 18 C 2 C SPINACH PPF = 3 C 7 C 12 C 18 C 2 C Control (day 28) PPF = 1 3 C 7 C 12 C 18 C 2 C

13 Effect of light and temperature on spinach fresh mass at harvest on day 42. Control was harvested on day 28. Total Fresh Mass per Plant (g) Spinach Temperature During 14-d "Failure" ( o C) PPF 1

14 Visual appearance of plants after 14-d of failure (Post Storage) Post Storage RADISH 1 C 6 C 12 C 2 C PPF = 1 C 6 C 12 C 2 C Control (day 28) PPF = 1 1 C 6 C 12 C 2 C

15 Visual appearance of plants at Harvest RADISH 1 C 6 C 12 C 2 C Control (day 28) PPF = 1 C 6 C 12 C 2 C PPF = 1 1 C 6 C 12 C 2 C

16 Effect of light and temperature on radish fresh mass at harvest on day 42. Control was harvested on day Root Fresh Mass (g per plant) Radish Temperature During 14-d "Failure" ( o C) PPF 1

17 Radish - Harvest Index 8 7 Harvest Index (% root, dry mass basis) Radish PPF Temperature During 14-d "Failure" ( o C)

18 Radish Fresh and Dry Mass at Harvest and Harvest Index Root Fresh Mass (g per plant) Root Dry Mass (g per plant) PPF = 1 PPF = PPF = () PPF = 1 PPF = PPF = () Leaf and Stem Dry Mass (g per plant) Harvest Index (% root, dry mass basis) PPF = 1 PPF = Temperature During 14-d "Failure" ( o C) PPF = () PPF = 1 PPF = PPF = ()

19 Visual appearance of plants after 14-d of failure (Post Storage) TOMATO 8 C 12 C 1 C 2 C 2 C Control (day 42) PPF = 8 C 12 C 1 C 2 C 2 C PPF = 1 8 C 12 C 1 C 2 C 2 C

20 Visual appearance of plants at Harvest TOMATO Control (day 42) 8 C 12 C 1 C 2 C 2 C PPF = 8 C 12 C 1 C 2 C 2 C PPF = 1 8 C 12 C 1 C 2 C 2 C

21 Effect of light and temperature on tomato fresh mass at harvest on day 42. Control was harvested on day Tomato Fruit Fresh Mass (g) PPF Temperature During 14-d "Failure" ( o C)

22 Tomato - Harvest Index Harvest Index (% fruit, dry mass basis) Tomato Temperature During 14-d "Failure" ( o C) PPF 1

23 Tomato Fresh and Dry Mass at Harvest and Harvest Index Fruit Fresh Mass (g per plant) Fruit % Dry Mass Harvest Index Leaf and Stem Dry Mass (% fruit, dry mass basis) (g per plant) PPF = () PPF= PPF=1 PPF= CNTROL 1 PPF= PPF = () Temperature During 14-d "Failure" ( o C) PPF = () PPF=1 PPF= PPF=1 PPF = () PPF=1

24 12 9 All 4 species 6 3 Lettuce 3 no supplemental light Fresh Mass (g per plant) Spinach Radish Root 3 2 Tomato Fruit Temperature During 14-d "Failure" ( o C)

25 12 9 PPF 6 All 4 species 3 Lettuce 3 & PPF = Fresh Mass (g per plant) Spinach Radish Root 3 2 Tomato Fruit Temperature During 14-d "Failure" ( o C)

26 12 9 PPF 1 All 4 species 6 3 Lettuce, PPF =, 1 Fresh Mass (g per plant) Spinach Radish Root Tomato Fruit Temperature During 14-d "Failure" ( o C)

27 Crop plants can tolerate 14.7 days on the dark side 14.7-d - Add 1 to 2% light - Lower temperature Light 14.7-d

28 Conclusions Addition of light during a power outage dramatically improves recovery. Lowering temperature preserves plants in the absence of light. Plants can grow on the dark side of the moon with a small energy input if temperature/light conditions are optimized

29 Power outages occurred on MIR and they will occur on the ISS. We should design our plant growth research chambers so that they can provide low light and low temperature during power outages. Shanon Lucid with USU-Apogee wheat