BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — A Florida-based company is preparing a plant-growing experiment for the International Space Station that could help researchers develop ways to grow food on future moon and Mars missions.
Voyager Technologies announced Monday that it signed a contract with Interstellar Lab to manage the hosting of BioPod EDEN, an autonomous plant-growth chamber, aboard the orbiting laboratory.
The project has a Kennedy Space Center connection: Interstellar Lab’s space science and operations leader, Ralph Fritsche, joined the company after 34 years with NASA at Kennedy, where he most recently managed space crop production, according to the announcement.
Comparing plants in space and on Earth
The chamber’s artificial intelligence system is designed to monitor and adjust the growing environment while researchers compare the results with a matching experiment on the ground.
The first mission is planned to last between 30 days and three months in orbit.
Voyager will support engineering, safety reviews, testing, integration and operations, along with returning the experiment to its customer. NASA will determine where the chamber is housed aboard the station.
The system is designed to operate largely on its own after installation, reducing the time astronauts need to spend tending it.
At the end of the experiment, a crew member would collect plant samples and freeze them for their return to Earth.
Building toward food production beyond Earth
“The faster we can do science in space the sooner we can grow food on the Moon,” Interstellar Lab founder and CEO Barbara Belvisi said in a statement.
The company says the research could support future systems that use plants to help sustain astronauts, while also producing findings relevant to agriculture on Earth.
Interstellar Lab previously won NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge grand prize for NuCLEUS, a separate food-production system. NASA identified the company as based in Merritt Island when describing that award.
The work builds on years of NASA plant research aboard the space station, including the Veggie system and Advanced Plant Habitat.
Monday’s announcement did not include a launch date for BioPod EDEN.
Read Voyager’s announcement and details of the mission agreement.
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