Aims:
The overall goal of EDEN ISS is the adaptation, integration and demonstration of higher plant cultivation technologies and operation procedures for safe food production on-board ISS and for future human explo-ration missions. The following key technologies and procedures will be advanced beyond the state-of-the-art:
Objectives:
Due to the necessity of validating key technologies for space greenhouses under mission relevant conditions and with representative mass flows, the EDEN ISS consortium defined six objectives:
Strategic expected achievements:
The proposed EDEN ISS project provides several benefits over the current state-of-the-art while advancing European technological competency by:
Potential market areas for strengthening European competitiveness:
The following terrestrial markets and applications will benefit from EDEN ISS: full control of growth environment (increased resource efficiency), food quality and safety technologies and procedures, molecular farming and especially the present megatrend urban agriculture (e.g. vertical farming).
Project consortium:
Scientific Advisory Board:
The EDEN ISS consortium will design and test essential CEA technologies using an International Standard Payload Rack (ISPR) cultivation system for potential testing on-board the ISS. Furthermore, a Future Explo-ration Greenhouse (FEG) will be designed with respect to future planetary BLSS deployments. The technologies will be tested in a laboratory environment as well as at the highly-isolated Antarctic Neumayer Station III, operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute. A small and mobile container-sized test facility will be built in order to provide realistic mass flow relationships for the ISPR section and FEG. In addition to tech-nology development and validation, food safety and plant handling procedures will be developed. These are integral aspects of the interaction between the crew and plants within closed environments. In this sense, the ISS can be seen as a test-bed for long-duration space missions and future planetary outposts.
Read more