Improving Habitability, Mood & Diet through Bioregenerative Food Systems

The first aim of this research investigates the health benefits and human factors involved in food production and which Human-Plant Interactions the crew enjoys and benefits from the most. This will provide a better understanding of which tasks should be automated and how automation can reduce the workload for undesirable tasks. The second aim involves developing growth automation strategies achieved through robotics and computer data processing. I am conducting some of these experiments using a commercial growth system that is augmented with the AgQ (A.I. for agriculture) software to create a custom growth system called SmartPot (SPOT). The automation strategies will involve studying Human-Computer Interactions and Human-Robotic Interactions to optimize the use of crew time, vehicle resources and to increase food production reliability and self-sufficiency. The third aim is investigating the integration of BLiSS into space habitats to improve habitability and to minimize habitat resource utilization. These inventions (SPOT and AgQ) and research will increase self-sufficiency, food security, and access to nature for its other restorative benefits beyond nutrition both on Earth and for interplanetary exploration destinations. These research findings will influence future space habitat architecture. The determination of crew health benefits from direct BLiSS habitat integration (opposed to separate growth chambers) and how automation can positively contribute to a robust food system is a pinnacle technical development needed to extend the human presence into the solar system. Additionally, this research is aligned with the research that NASA has identified as part of the critical path (see list below of relevant roadmap elements) for long duration human space exploration. • The engineering and manufacturing of the newest version of SmartPot (SPOT) 4.0 has been completed. The long standing pH issue was finally resolved with a new electronics architecture that required a change in the hardware within the Brain. • AgQ provides the capability to monitor plant health status and alert the local users and teleoperations to the current status of a variety of data streams and off nominal situations. The platform also has the ability to implement decision support that will eventually include diagnostics and prediction modules that are under development. • SPOT 4.0 was successfully deployed to the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) analog habitat in the Utah desert for the first half of the Mars160 mission which was a twin 80 day mission at MDRS and the second 80 day mission was in the arctic last summer. Data from this study is still being processed and the final findings will be included in a publication and in my dissertation. • A totally new Micro-Location System was built in collaboration with the Archethought team and was deployed with SPOT to MDRS. This non-invasive system locates the crew and SPOTs distributed throughout the habitat with an accuracy of 25cm and allows us to understand the human factors and operational aspects of SPOT care tasks as well as how the rest of the habitat is utilized by the crew. • The initial pilot study of passive Human-Plant Interaction was conducted to assess the preference for selected BLiSS crops in a variety of habitat architectures using the BioPac. The study included taking measurements of how the specific combinations of crops and habitats (see sample stimulus below) impacted the psychophysiology of the participant and survey data. This study also provided a baseline assessment of how crops in SPOT affected the participant’s psychophysiology (i.e. valence and arousal) which will be useful to reference in future analog studies for comparison. Currently, the pilot data is being processed to perform a power analysis in order to find the total number of participants needed for the full data set. Additionally, during the data collection of the full data set the preliminary validation testing of wearable psychophysiology monitors that will be used in future analog studies will be completed. Once the full data set has been collected and processed the final findings will be included in a publication and in my dissertation.