An automated plant growth facility for conducting plant research supporting space biology and food production project on the International Space Station (ISS)

Demars, Matthew

Dimapilis, Dinah I.

Dufour, Nicole F.

Levine, Howard G.

Monje Mejia, Oscar A.

Onate, Bryan G.

Richards, Jeffrey T.

Tellez, Gillermo

NASA Technical Reports Server

Hardware Validation Test of the 
Advanced Plant Habitat
•Oscar Monje, Jeffrey T. Richards
• AECOM – LASSO KSC
•Dinah I. Dimapilis
• Jacobs – TOSC KSC
•Gillermo M. Tellez-Giron, Matthew De Mars
• Sierra Nevada (formerly Orbitec)
•Nicole F. Dufour, Howard G. Levine, and Bryan G. Onate 
• NASA / KSC
Astronaut "Ricky" Arnold
34th Annual Meeting of the American Society for 
Gravitational and Space Research, Bethesda Maryland, 
Nov 3 2018
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20180008565 2019-08-31T17:46:04+00:00Z
Advanced Plant Habitat
An automated plant growth facility for conducting plant
research supporting space biology and food production
projects on the International Space Station (ISS).
Plants are grown in the Science Carrier (SC) of the APH, (0.2
m2 instrumented) root module.
The SC is packed with media, seeded on Earth, and
transferred dry to the APH facility on ISS. The plant
experiments are initiated when the SC is installed in the
APH growth chamber and it is fully wetted.
The planting and germination protocols for growing wheat
(cv Apogee) and Arabidopsis (cv Colombia) were developed
and tested at KSC in the APH Engineering Development Unit
(EDU). Protocols were tested on orbit during the post-
installation growth checkout of APH on ISS.
Hardware Validation – 1st plant growth test
APH Facility – Assembly / Functional Test
• APH - transported to ISS on SpaceX 11 and OA-7. 
• APH - assembled on the Kibo Module in 27Oct17.
• First power-up and 5-day functional test - 27Nov to 1Dec 2017 tested:
• commanding, telemetry, and data retrieval from PHARMER.
• T/RH control modules at 23 C/70% RH, 18 C/50% RH, 18 C/90% RH, 30 C/90% RH, 
and 30 C/50% RH.
• Light levels
• CO2 scrubbing, CO2 injection, Ethylene Scrubbing functions
• Experiment Profile scripts (T, RH, CO2, Pictures).
• An acoustic test was completed on 8Dec17.
Astronaut Joe Acaba
APH Facility – Validation Schedule
• Activated APH 19Jan18 
• Initiated First Plant Test on 22Jan18 - verify that science is supported on 
APH hardware. 
• Install pre-planted SC: WT Arabidopsis and Apogee semi-dwarf wheat 
• Two week growth of WT Arabidopsis and 33 days of wheat conducted to 
demonstrate adequate plant growth for future science experiments. 
• Demonstrate and evaluate performance of on-orbit watering protocols.
• WT Arabidopsis – verify planting protocols of PH-01 Experiment.
• Wheat Plants – provide a biological ‘load’ on the system.
• Demonstrate on-orbit watering protocol.
• Demonstrate on-orbit germination / harvest protocols.
• Demonstrate experiment profile scripts
APH - Subsystems
The APH communicates with 
crew via a laptop 
Ground commands from the KSC 
Experiment Monitoring Area
SubsystemsGrowth Light Assembly
Growth 
Chamber
Power Distribution Assembly
ISIS Drawers
APH – User Interface
GLA - Spectral Quality & Intensity
0-600 µmol m-2 s-1 at 630 nm ±10 nm0-400 µmol m-2 s-1 at 450 nm ±10 nm 0-100 µmol m-2 s-1 at 525 nm ±10 nm
W 0-600 µmol m-2 s-1 at 400-700 nmIR 0-50 µmol m-2 s-1 at 735 nm ±10 nmPI Mixture
APH Science Carrier
• Four quadrants – independent moisture control
• Baseline – TRL-9 porous substrate / slow release 
fertilizer
• Pre-planted / Contains water and substrate
Planting and Germination
planting protocols (launch vibration):
• Preparing the planting media, foam – sift, autoclave
• Packing (legacy to Mir, BPS)
• Seeding the SC (immobilize seeds). 
germination protocols:
• Seed sterilization
• Determining the wicking system used to germinate seeds
• Determine environmental conditions to ensure germination
• Thinning as needed
Context: Spaceflight Plant Growth Systems
Zabel et al. Life Sci. Space Res. (2016)
Light
300 µmol/m2s
Light
1000
Gateway
Salad Machine
APH – current capabilities
• Automated substrate-based watering system – 0.2 m2 - Active
• Cultural Conditions
• LED lighting: 0 to 1000 umol/m2s, photoperiod
• Spectral  bands: white, blue, green, red, far red
• Environmental control: CO2, Tair, RH, soil moisture, ventilation
• Teleoperation via commanding: manual mode, scripts, real time GUI
• Crew tended functions: planting, harvest, sensors, maintenance
• Imagery: aerial growth rates, health, watering, food safety - hyperspectral
Future Studies – deep space
• Watering system: 
• microgravity independent, reusable, modular, light weight, no substrate
• Autonomous: 
• firmware, troubleshooting, scheduler, robotic farmer arms, AI
• Crew/Inputs: 
• installation, sample return, consumer, fertilizer, seeds, water
• Enable Science: 
• Platform for molecular tests, fundamental biology
• radiation exposure, crop production rates, food quality
APH commanding logs are data for designing a ‘fully’ automated plant chamber
Space farming is multidisciplinary – science, engineers, robotics 
APH Facility – First Plant Test
Arabidopsis (Quadrants 2 & 3) initiated on 1/22/18. 
Apogee wheat (Quadrants 1 & 4) Initiated on 2/7-8/18. 
Feb 22, 26, harvest Mar 6, 9, 12   2018 - Arabidopsis harvested on Mar 6 – observed 
debris containment. Apogee wheat (Quadrants 1 & 4) was 32 days old on Mar12.
Nondestructive data – Gas exchange
• APH measures nondestructive growth data – C fluxes.
• Example: CO2 Response Curves from 20 day old wheat
CO2 Drawdown Technique: 
- Change the light level, disable CO2 control,  
and photosynthesis consumes chamber CO2 -
drawdown.
- Allows Light response curves to be measured 
as well.
- Daily Growth – Lights come on.
ISS 2002 - BPS – Biomass 
Production System
PESTO - Photosynthesis 
Experiment Subsystem Testing 
and Operations  - PI_G. Stutte
Stutte et al. Planta (2005)
5 11 20 25 31
Monje et al. Planta (2005)
Daily CO2
DrawDown Data
Measuring CO2 and light 
response curves of wheat 
plants in microgravity 
• Wheat harvest was conducted by 
removing the SC - Astronaut Norishige
“Nemo” Kanai
Conclusions
• APH Facility was installed, assembled and validated for conducting plant 
research on ISS.
• Two species – Wheat and Arabidopsis plants were successfully grown 
from seed and harvested after 30 days of growth on ISS.
• Validated planting, germination  and watering protocols.
• Collected environmental data and nondestructive plant growth data.
• Hardware supports science.
Go APH!
Acknowledgements
APH was sponsored by NASA’s ISS Program and Space Life and Physical 
Sciences Research and Applications Division (SLPSRA) and co-developed by 
NASA and Sierra Nevada Corp. (formerly ORBITEC) of Madison, Wisconsin. 
APH is available to support SLPSRA selected fundamental biology plus U.S. 
National Laboratory investigations sponsored by the Center for the 
Advancement of Science in Space.
Questions?


Hardware Validation Test of the Advanced Plant Habitat

Hardware Validation Test of the Advanced Plant Habitat

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