Inflatable greenhouse will allow NASA to feed people on Mars

One of the biggest problems that we face when sending people to Mars or the moon is the food. Space ships can’t take your food for a few years or a lifetime, and plants can grow in Martian conditions. To try to imagine a full range to solve this problem, NASA scientists from the Space center of a name Kennedy in conjunction with the University of Arizona has developed an inflatable cylindrical greenhouse for extraterrestrial space. The project Prototype Lunar/Mars Greenhouse uses a special bioregenerative the life support system that mimics the environment of our planet for growing plants elsewhere in the Solar system.

How does this kind of greenhouse?

The life support system will collect the carbon dioxide exhaled by people, and release the oxygen that the plants generate, back into the room space colony. Also the mechanisms will be to pump water rich in oxygen with the necessary nutrients through the root part of the plant and collect what was left at the end. But there is one huge drawback – the water must be brought from Earth. If a settlement on another celestial body is constant, then you need to find a source of water already there.

Although Land plants grow under the Sun, in the moon the greenhouse will need to be placed underground to protect from radiation. The first lunar or Martian colonists to simulate the solar light can use led lights or to capture the sunlight on the surface and conduct it down through a special fiber optic cable. Both lighting has been successfully tested and helped to grow plants in the prototype greenhouses with a size of 5.5 x 2.5 metres.

Source: NASA