the course of this country's future in
space has been set Space Station freedom
in low-earth orbit a permanent base on
the lunar surface and then before the
year 2020
among many challenges to be met in
achieving these goals is an efficient
reliable way to provide spacefaring
crews with fresh air clean water and
nutritious field carrying enough of
these vital supplies onboard will be
costly and in many cases impossible
especially for lengthy missions seeking
alternatives researchers around the
country including a group at NASA's
Kennedy Space Center Florida are
developing a system where plants recycle
air water and waste and provide food
plants in a water-based nutrient
solution eliminates the need to carry
heavy soil into space the work of dr.
Steve Schwarzkopf an engineer at
Lockheed in Sunnyvale California
demonstrates how important it is to
control the content of nutrient
solutions he's discovering that when
tomatoes and lettuce are grown in the
same solution the lettuce doesn't fare
so well what we do not know yet is
whether this effect is caused by the
tomatoes putting out some kind of a
chemical into the nutrient solution
through the roots or whether it might be
due to the fact that they're taking up
some nutrient that the lettuce needs and
just not letting let us get it
researchers at NASA's Johnson Space
Center in Houston are growing plants in
soils similar to those on the lunar
surface their test chamber allows them
to work at reduced atmospheric pressures
likely to be used in habitats on the
Moon and Mars the JSC team is also
working to adapt physical chemical
systems from the Apollo and shuttle
programs to recycle on the land
breathing air dr. mark cliffs at NASA's
Ames Research Center in Mountain View
California is integrating other
recycling subsystems into a facility
called the solid machine air circulated
through a growth chamber collects
moisture released by leaves this air is
then drawn through an opening and the
rear of the chamber and piped into a
condenser which removes the water
preliminary analyses indicate this
recovered water is drinkable this could
now evolve into a different kind of
system tour perhaps we could utilize
grey water in the nutrient solution and
then recover essentially potable
drinking water
recycling in space enlisting the
expertise of scientists and engineers
around the country to support life
beyond Earth
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